The RegenNarration Podcast: Recent Episodes
Anthony James
The RegenNarration podcast features the stories of a generation that is changing the story, enabling the regeneration of life on this planet. It’s weekly, independent media, ad-free, freely available and supported entirely by listeners. You'll hear from high profile and grass-roots leaders everywhere, on how they're changing the stories we live by, and the systems we create in their mould. Along with often very personal tales of how they themselves are changing.
Created and hosted by Anthony James, a fifth generation Australian man living on ancient lands among the oldest continuous cultures on earth. He is an award-winning facilitator and educator, Prime Ministerial award-winner for service to the international community, widely published writer, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia, and Warm Data Lab Host Certified by the International Bateson Institute.
Welcome to the new trailer for the podcast! We hope you enjoy it. Hit play, share it with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
What if the stories we tell ourselves could help us change the world - for the better? For the last decade, my family and I have been travelling Australia and the world to find out, and created a podcast to share the journey.
What we found, and continue to find, has blown us away. From regenerating farms, cattle stations and Aboriginal communities around Australia, to Mayan communities in Guatemala. From Blackfeet Amskapi Piikani Country in Montana to urban regeneration in Melbourne. From the producers of the healthiest, secure, local food, fuel and fibre, to the ancestral stories we all share everywhere.
This is The RegenNarration podcast — conversations with the people changing the systems and stories we live by, enabling the regeneration of life on this planet.
Music (sourced from Artlist):
The Lonely Ramblers - Rowdy - Instrumental version
Mark Grundhoefer - Barefoot
Yarin Primak - Galaxy Groove
Yehezkel Raz - Flight of the Inner Bird
Patrick Sebag - Hours - Instrumental version
And Regeneration, by friend of the podcast, Amelia Barden.
Thanks for listening!
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
How does a fashion editor cotton onto regenerative agriculture, and then find that thread leads her back to the witch hunts? Lucianne Tonti is a prominent journalist, author and consultant specialising in regenerative fashion systems. Her first book was duly called Sundressed: Natural fibres and the future of fashion. That’s now being developed into a docuseries.
Lucianne’s subsequent epic tale is told in her new book, Good Witch: In Search of Our Lost Feminine Power, published by Summit Books. It’s described as ‘A paradigm-shifting book that asks what the world might be like if divine feminine power had never been devalued. And shows us how it is being reclaimed.’
This is the book I wish I read as a young bloke in my teens. I hope both women and men get hold of it in numbers. Lucianne has been on some incredible journeys in the last half dozen years, including visiting many guests on this podcast. But her last couple of years have really dug back into the roots of our struggles, and possibilities. And it makes sense of so much. From gender relations, to health epidemics, to land, politics, economies and so much more.
More on the book:
Today, we can still feel the legacy of the witch hunts: In the way the natural world has been degraded. In the way humans have become disengaged from the things that make us truly happy. A campaign of disenchantment has sought to disconnect us from the earth – and from each other.
But enchantment was never truly lost. Here, Tonti shows us how a return to feminine power is what the world desperately needs now, more than ever.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 30 July 2026.
Title image of Lucianne by Anne Peeters.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Lucianne’s Substack, including dispatches from her journeys accompanied by photos.
Her series of book launch events.
Her write up of her visit to the Haggerty farm last year for Elle Australia, Follow the Flock.
Music:
Silhouettes, by Muted (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Easkey Britton is a pioneering marine sociologist, writer and surfer. She has continued her family legacy in Ireland, becoming a legendary surfer in her own right – from being the only kid surfing in her area, to later becoming a 5x national champion and the first woman to surf the huge wave near Mullaghmore, to inspiring and guiding more women and girls into the sport, even where you might least expect it (think Iran - where it was her life that was transformed).
For her, though, it’s always been much more than a sport. Her PhD, best-selling books and immersive ocean retreats are all about our deeper connections with water, and its power to revive old stories, places and kinships, that heal and inspire.
And for Easkey, it all turned on a decision her grandmother made. And an impromptu moment of crazy, or brave, or maybe flow state. With some key mentor presences along the way, including one we share. So that's where we start.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 17 July 2026.
Easkey riding a giant wave in her 2014 Ride of the Year Entry.
You can listen to my conversation with the late Manchán Magan (that I still hear from listeners about) in episode 173 (or the tribute from the start of this year, which includes the last 25 minutes or so from that original episode, in episode 290). And with Tyson Yunkaporta in episode 70.
Music:
Ocean sounds by Charles Rose.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
If this conversation sparks something, subscribe, share it, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Thanks for listening!
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Mara Tasker is the director of the new award-winning documentary The River. It follows the people living inside the Colorado River Basin, from farmers and ranchers to suburban families, tribal communities, and the seven state negotiators trying to rewrite the rules of a river that no longer matches the paperwork. What starts as a personal admission of “I didn’t really know the river I depended on” becomes a map for charting how we might be able to breathe life back into the Colorado, and really, rivers everywhere.
Mara’s story, too, is worth the telling – with no straight lines, from rabble rousing school girl, to gutsy cold calling young creative, with a passion for engaging with all kinds of people, and a river running through it all. Plenty of uncanny laughs run through this conversation too.
I was introduced to Mara by Melissa Grumhaus, who was an Executive Producer on the incredible documentary film Bring Them Home, about the Blackfeet Nation's effort to restore wild buffalo herds. You might remember her from episode 278 in Denver last year. And this time, she’s part of the production team alongside Aussie company Songbird Studios. I noted recent popular podcast guest, Pete McBride, was also in the credits. So it was clear how good and meaningful this film was going to be.
If you value what you hear, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and of course head to the film’s website. Please share this podcast too.
Featuring music from the film’s soundtrack: The Story of a River, and Eric’s Grasses, by Mark Crawford.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 26 June 2026.
Host a community screening of The River.
And a community screening of Bring Them Home.
You can hear the podcasts with Liz Carlisle for ep309 (with her beautiful music), Pete McBride for ep305 (with his live mandolin), Jeff Goebel for, most recently on-location in New Mexico, ep211, and Judith Schwartz for ep175, all among my very favourites.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Linley Dixon is co-host of The Real Organic Podcast, the weekly Anthem Award-winning ‘Best Sustainability, Environment and Climate Podcast’, recently also named one of the ‘best climate podcasts’ by Earth.org. That pod is produced by The Real Organic Project, that Linley co-directs with Vermont organic farmer Dave Chapman, a farmer-led movement, and add-on food label, dedicated to preserving the integrity of organic food.
Right now, Linley sees the same patterns that have beset organics, coming for the regenerative movement. And in response to a challenge from Paul Hawken, and inspiration from so many pioneers, including some Aussies, Linley argues it’s time to join forces.
Linley is a power of knowledge and experience in all this, with an incredible story to tell. Having started with nothing, her family did the hard yards and made a go of farming, but in the face of industrialised headwinds almost had to give it up, before a legacy moment occurred. But then, a horror contamination event. It was gutting. And it transformed Linley’s life. Along with so many others now, in turn.
Perhaps inevitably, as a fellow podcaster, Linley interviews me at times here too! So it’s a kind of 2-in-1. We compare all sorts of notes, including of our respective journeys across the States and Australia, speaking to people of all kinds, politics and other beliefs. Again, you guessed it, painting a picture you don’t commonly see on the TV, and mapping out the successful stuff we can build on. And again, it all culminates in an incredible exchange stemming from the music question! Before we go out with a subscriber voicemail.
This conversation was recorded just before the article I published on Substack last week on Trump’s Executive Order apparently advancing regenerative farming, said to be in part some MAHA triage. But we explore all its contexts here, including MAHA, its promise, and signs of divergence from Trump.
We also look for what actually works: alliances across labels, cooperative models, food-as-medicine programs, directories and online marketplaces that connect eaters directly to trustworthy farms, and the cultural fuel it takes to keep pushing when the system is designed for consolidation.
So ultimately, this episode feels perfectly timed this week. It really felt like we’d settled in on the porch at the farm too. I hope you enjoy the Summer evening hang with us.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 2 July 2026.
If you care about regenerative farming, organic integrity, soil biodiversity, pesticide contamination, and building a food system that earns trust, this one is for you. Subscribe, share it with a friend who buys groceries, and leave a review with the most important standard you think “regenerative” should require.
You can hear our visit to Churchtown Dairy, with Judith Schwartz and company, in episode 221: Restoring Dairy Farming with Family, Food & Festival. And the first listener mailbag went out from there too, in ep 219.
And the Grounded Festival podcast that features the session on Food as Medicine, with Steven Chen MD, and me hosting, is here.
Music:
Organic Reflections, by Roie Shpigler (sourced from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
‘A brilliant exploration of wildness in both nature and humankind.’ That's what Alice Winn said about the new book by Cal Flyn. Cal is an award-winning writer from the Highlands of Scotland, and the book is called The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness.
A five-year odyssey she sometimes thought would kill her, Cal travelled the world exploring the concept of wilderness as it ‘shifted from a spiritual notion to an aesthetic and later to an (increasingly controversial) conservation ideal.’ Which led to a critical question, as we go about things like rewilding and the 30 by 30 conservation target, how do we decolonise that ideal, while not losing all it has gained?
Then, having been introduced to the new book, I got even more excited looking over Cal’s back catalogue. Her previous book was the award-winning best-seller, Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape. What a collection of stories that was too. And out of both books, Cal says ‘coming out hopeful was a surprise to me.’
But we start with her first book, being on her harrowing connection with Australia. Thicker Than Water emerged as she traced the path of a distant relative who became fêted as a pioneer hero in Australia, but has more recently been implicated as ringleader of a number of brutal massacres of the Gunai Aboriginal people.
We talk about all this, the telling connections across some of her most extraordinary encounters, and what Cal’s found in herself, the rest of us, and the rest of nature, that continues to surprise and inspire.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 4 June 2026.
Title image of Cal sourced from The Guardian.
Music:
Scotland Mountains, by Angel Salazar (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Subscribe for more conversations on rethinking conservation, decolonising wilderness, and building a future where nature and culture can both thrive, and share the episode and leave a review so more people can find it.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
A plant that gives you salt and sugar. A forest “supermarket without the bills.” And a business model that treats farmers, foragers, and fishers like artists with a world stage, not beneficiaries waiting for help. We’re live at the 2026 Grounded Festival in the Otways with Helianti Hilman, founder of Javara, following her mission to help revive Indonesia’s rich food culture and turn food biodiversity into dignified livelihoods.
We talk terroir across an archipelago of landscapes and 1,300 ethnic groups, and what traditional knowledge still holds: slow cooking methods that protect nutrition, hyper-local souring agents and herbs, and delicious ingredients that serve many different functions. Helianti shares vivid examples, from lower-sodium salt in Papua to spice diversity that challenges what “normal” flavors even mean, plus the practical reality of mapping edible ecosystems without damaging them.
Then we get into the reeds in conversation: commercialisation without extraction. Helianti explains why rarity matters more than volume, how Javara develops processing methods that don’t rely on electricity, and how ancient packaging with no plastic, the right narrative, and traceability help indigenous foods compete on quality instead of pity. We also unpack her “artist manager” approach, the Food Artisan School for rural women and youth, cooperative structures for shared infrastructure and financing, and what hotels chasing ESG standards actually need from local supply chains.
We close with questions on sustainability, access, and intellectual property, including the limits of protecting traditional knowledge through trademarks and geographical indication, and why “food is medicine” isn’t a trend but a daily practice embedded in spices, herbs, and low-glycemic palm sugars. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with a friend, and leave a rating or review so more people can find the work.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 22 April 2026.
Title image by Alan Benson.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Nicole Masters, live in conversation at Grounded for episode 307.
Liz Carlisle on the living ancient roots of regeneration and its healing ground for episode 309 last week.
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
This is somewhat of a momentous occasion. Liz Carlisle wrote a book called Healing Grounds a few years ago, and a listener brought it to my attention. Just as it was for Liz, it’s been really significant for me. Initially setting out to test regenerative agriculture’s claims on carbon and climate restoration, a bigger picture opened up. And a line from the last page has stayed with me since – ‘this is ancestor work’. Longer term listeners will have heard me recall it a bit on this podcast. It even came up in the recent chat with Nicole Masters at Grounded Festival, such is its synergy with where so many others seem to be finding themselves. And it's our starting point here.
Liz also has a new book out, a compilation with dozens of amazing stories and contributors, co-edited with Aubrey Streit Krug of The Land Institute. It’s called Living Roots: The Promise of Perennial Foods (global release here). While Healing Grounds is also coming out in paperback, with a new foreword.
These are works so full of everything we need and could benefit from more right now. Successes, joys and wisdom, transcending impasses, traumas and would-be divides.
And it’s all somewhat presciently evidenced in the songs Liz wrote and performed as a young touring musician, some of which she kindly shares with us here. That was before that life led her to this one, via a job with farmer and new Senator at the time, Jon Tester.
Her work now also includes being an Associate Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara, where she teaches courses on food and farming to a growing, ready and bold student cohort of thousands.
Here Liz shares her Dust Bowl lineage, the pain of disconnection from farming, and the way each layer of understanding gets deeper than tools or inputs. Regeneration, she argues, is tied to Indigenous stewardship and to food traditions carried through diaspora, and it only works at the scale of the climate crisis if it is equitable for people as well as healthy for soil. That takes us into the hard, practical questions: land ownership, short leases, monocultures, and the policy machinery that keeps farmers locked into systems that are brittle under climate change and biodiversity loss.
We also talk about what’s possible and happening right now, in that context. We talk land trusts, commons-based models, cultural access agreements, and Indigenous land return, plus why perennials matter so much for climate resilience and soil carbon stability. Living Roots brings the concept to life through stories of serviceberries, agroforestry, prairie strips in the Midwest, and the remembering of perennial grains that reframes “innovation” as cultural memory.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 17 June 2026.
Music: Feels Like Home, The Water Is Wide, and Montana, all by Liz Carlisle.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
What happens when a regenerative farmer decides the land deserves a soundtrack? Cathy Briant joins us alongside Australian music legend Charles Jenkins (of Icecream Hands and other fame) to tell the story behind Country’s Calling, the album launched at the recent Grounded Festival.
Country's Calling stemmed from the trials in Cathy's journey to becoming a regenerative farmer in Victoria’s Gippsland region. During a particularly difficult time in her life, Cathy discovered how deeply music could help. So she found herself asking: what if music could help us listen to the land?
She then teamed up with Charles, alongside fellow Oz music legend Douglas Lee Robertson, and young Indigenous talent Casii Williams, and Country’s Calling was the result. It’s wonderful, and we hear plenty of it in this rollicking ride of emotion, groove and inspiration.
It begins with some of Cathy's family history and farming pressure: rising costs, stressed relationships, sleepless nights and the deep ache of watching land and livelihoods pushed to the edge. Then Cathy shares how she became a lyricist out of nowhere, by letting the land lead. While Charles explores the craft of making it all work together in great songs.
Along the way we talk and listen to some favourite tracks like “Song For A Cow,” “Bare Ground,” “Best Foot Forward” and “My Name Is Soil, Don’t Call Me Dirt,” including why naming something can be the start of respect and relationship.
We also zoom out to the bigger picture: the parallels between farmers and musicians trying to stay viable, the role of community, and why we back Bandcamp as a direct way to support artists. A portion of sales also goes to the Bionutrient Food Association, connecting soil microbial diversity to nutrient density and human health.
If you love thoughtful songwriting, regenerative farming, thriving soil biology and real world hope, subscribe, share this one with a friend, and leave a review so more people find it. Thank you!
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 11 June 2026.
Title image of Cathy by Alan Benson at Grounded Festival 2026, and of Charles off his website.
Accompanying the introduction to this episode is Around the Island – Night Ambience, SFX by Charles Rose (from Artlist).
You can hear that episode with Dan Kittredge and Matthew Evans in ep. 283, A Superhuman Finale to Grounded Festival WA: The Nutrient Density Conundrum.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Soil can change fast, but what about people? We're coming to you live from the 2026 Grounded Festival on the extraordinary Yan Yan Gurt West Farm, stewarded by the Stewart family, in the Otways of Victoria, Australia.
It’s early on day 1, the marquee Ironbark Tent is full, and we’re joined by global figurehead in agroecology, author of For The Love of Soil, and founder of the CREATE program with Integrity Soils, from Montana USA, Nicole Masters.
The session is billed ‘Soil Health Isn’t Always Sexy’. But we start by questioning the premise, and run from there, in conversation with me and those present, squarely in the moment, through a series of unplanned places and stories - bold, vulnerable and so instructive - woven together by Nicole’s unique, hard-won and globally influential wisdom.
Nicole challenges the badge-of-honour culture of farming, and most other fields these days, at the outset: 'hard work takes no discipline'. From there we unpack the gap between what we say we want and what our days reveal, and why deep listening often creates more change than the best advice.
We also zoom out to the bigger system. Nicole shares why collaboration beats doing it all yourself, how farmers and the rest of us can build profitable, creative business models that serve a growing desire for reconnection, and why peer pressure may be the most powerful agent of change. Along the way we talk somatics, self-regulation, succession stress, trust and intuition, AI as an unavoidable tool, and the quiet pull of ancestor work and lineage in a time that feels uncertain.
If you care about living a regenerative life, but you also want a life with joy and the space to enjoy it, this conversation is for you.
With thanks to the Grounded crew for this recording, at the biggest festival for better food, farming and ecological care ever held in this country.
Featuring listener voicemail at the end of the episode too.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 22 April 2026.
Title slide by Alan Benson.
See more photos on the episode web page.
And for paid subscribers, join us for the Solstice event with Fred Provenza (and co-host Katie Ross).
Hear more from Nicole Masters (and Meagan Lannan) in ep164, Training the Wayfinders.
Hear Manchán Magan in ep290, How Old Stories Guide Us Through An Uncertain Future.
Hear Kristy Stewart in ep132, An Agroforestry Revolution.
Grounded was featured all over national media this year, including this article in The Monthly magazine by previous podcast guest Jo Chandler.
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Birds chirping in the background of an interview might sound like a small detail, but a listener voicemail reminds us it can be the difference between a nice conversation and a felt sense of real regeneration. We’re back in the mailbag sharing the messages that have come in from subscribers, land workers, authors, career changers and long-time listeners, and what those reflections reveal about storytelling, trust, and hope in a complicated time.
We also sit with a sharp question raised by a listener after my conversation with holistic management founder Allan Savory: what happens when intuition gets dismissed as “a waste of time”? That tension between scientific legitimacy and other ways of knowing runs through regenerative agriculture, systemic change, and climate work, so it’s well worth exploring more. Along the way, we hear messages of praise for crystal-clear explanations of water cycle and climate dynamics, and musing why radiative forcing and water’s role in climate often fail to reach the wider public conversation.
Then I share special news: a first-time live online podcast audience event for paid subscribers on Patreon or Substack, featuring legendary behavioural ecologist Fred Provenza and his evolving Cosmic Dreaming talk, followed by conversation. If you’ve been looking for a deeper way to participate, this is it, and you can also send your own voicemail or text via the link in the show notes.
If the podcast has helped you think differently or act differently, please subscribe, share a favourite episode, and leave a rating and review so these stories travel further.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 1 June 2026.
Title slide: chasing fish with an old friend, Flat Top, back home (by Anthony James).
Music:
We’re Just Getting Started, by The Lonely Ramblers (from Artlist).
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
The Colorado River is treated much like plumbing on a map, but out on the ground it’s a living system with thresholds, memories, and consequences. I’m joined by award-winning photographer, filmmaker and adventurer, Pete McBride, whose latest book Witness to Water: One Photographer's Mission to Defend the Colorado River traces two decades of unexpected reporting and personal reckonings on the river he grew up with. We talk about the alarming reality of collapsing Rocky Mountain snowpack, rising heat, and a basin-wide standoff that pushes reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead toward 'power pool' and 'dead pool' levels right now.
From there, the story gets visceral. Pete describes walking into Glen Canyon as the water recedes, finding ghost forests, vanished rock art, and signs of life returning fast as habitat reappears. We dig into why dams create ecological surprises, including endangered fish dynamics and invasive species risks, and why water policy can’t be solved only in fluorescent-lit rooms. One of Pete’s simplest proposals lands hard: get the negotiators in a boat and have them be with the river together.
We also hear of Pete's extraordinary rare hike through the Grand Canyon, heartbreak on the Colorado River Delta, and later the healing legacy of Delta Dawn, where a pulse flow briefly had Pete and friends become the last people to paddle to the sea, and where ongoing targeted releases now rebuild pockets of riparian forest and bird habitat. Along the way we explore 'earned hope', Indigenous leadership and successes, uranium mining and the uncertainty around amazing groundwater dynamics, along with the quieter lesson running underneath it all: how silence and soundscapes shape what we notice, what we protect, and even what we become.
Pete's recent op-ed in Time Magazine, How to Save the Colorado River, might even have been called How to Save All Rivers. It certainly had us also talking about the parallels here in Australia with the Murray/Dungala River, along with our recent journey there.
Pete's short video update from the Delta.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 22 May 2026.
With thanks to Ed Roberson on the Mountain and Prairie podcast.
Music by Pete McBride.
Katie Ross and I talk about the Murray/Dungala River journey for ep302. And Katie talks a bigger water story in ep304.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Clouds, soil moisture, and plant life are doing more climate work than most of us were ever taught and ignoring them leaves a huge gap in how we respond to warming. Here's the keynote from Dr. Katie Ross, at the recent Australian Water Association conference, that connects climate science to the living landscape, making the case that the climate “stands on two legs”: the familiar atmospheric story of greenhouse gases and a bottom-up ecological story driven by water, biology, and energy flows.
We dig into radiative forcing using a simple Earth energy budget, then follow what happens when solar energy meets healthy country: diverse plants photosynthesise and transpire, shifting heat into latent form, while microbes and plant compounds act as cloud condensation nuclei that help water vapor form thicker, lower, more reflective clouds. That cloud cover matters for cooling, for gentle local rain, and for clearer nighttime re-radiation windows that let heat escape. We also zoom out to the blue planet, where phytoplankton and ocean processes support cloud formation and climate balance.
Then the hard part: what changes when we clear forests, drain wetlands, straighten waterways, and degrade soils. Katie explains how altered land surfaces generate more heat, keep skies hazier, push storms toward extremes, and lock landscapes into runoff, erosion, drought, and fire. She closes with why carbon became the dominant climate narrative and what a more complete approach looks like: emissions cuts paired with regenerative agriculture, living soils, restored wetlands, and rebuilt small water cycles for real water security and local cooling.
Subscribe, share this with someone working on land or water, and leave a review so more people can find the missing half of the climate story.
Katie Ross PhD is a writer, Adjunct Fellow at UTS, and former CEO of Soils for Life.
Chapter markers & transcript.
You can watch Katie's slides attached to chapter markers as she speaks.
Recorded 25 February 2026.
Katie talks about our recent running of the Confluence river journey on the Murray/Dungala, in episode 302.
The keynote before Katie's by Walbanga woman Sheryl Hedges is episode 303.
Music:
Southern Roots Boogie, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
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The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Water policy often gets framed as engineering, compliance, and competing demands. Then Sheryl Hedges steps up at the Australian Water Association conference and resets the baseline: for First Nations people, water is not a resource, it’s a living being that carries memory, knowledge, and songlines. That single shift turns “allocation” into responsibility, and it turns river health into a measure of cultural, ecological, and economic life across generations.
Sheryl is a Walbanga woman leading the First Nations Water Branch within Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and her keynote lands right in the hard numbers. First Nations people hold rights to around 40% of Australian land, yet control less than 0.2% of surface water entitlements in the Murray-Darling Basin. She names the structural roots of that gap, including the fiction of aqua nullius and the way water entitlements have been tied to land ownership and capital inside a multibillion-dollar water market.
We walk through the Murray-Darling Basin Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program (AWEP), a $100 million initiative that is buying water entitlements while also building something more durable: governance that can hold and manage water over the long term, shaped through deep co-design with Basin nations. Sheryl explains why “ownership without governance is fragile”, what the “pace of trust” looks like in practice, and why embedding cultural flows and First Nations decision making is central to Australia’s water resilience, climate adaptation, and institutional integrity.
If you want clearer thinking on First Nations water rights, water governance reform, and what real structural change requires from government, utilities, agriculture, finance, and allies, have a listen. Subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 25 February 2026.
Music:
Yellowstone Birds, by Yellowstone Sound Library (from Artlist).
The Tree Who Grew On Water, by Yoav Ilan (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Back in March, Dr Katie Ross and I ran a canoe journey along the Murray/Dungala River, Australia’s longest, most regulated and mythologised river - to, as the bill put it, listen, witness, and create, in deep immersion and deep time. Could that help change the story of a magnificent but sorely ailing River and its communities? By changing our stories? By asking the River even?
We headed to the confluence of the Murray Darling/Dungala Baaka Rivers, and called the journey Confluence. It filled in days. And come the Equinox, 16 of us climbed aboard and disembarked for a week together.
We’ve had many folk asking about it since. Including many who wanted to be there but couldn’t. So with thanks to you all for your interest, we decided to record our initial debrief for you. There’ll be more to share over time. But if you’re interested in how Confluence came about, was set up, and turned out in its first running, then here’s a starter.
We also debrief on Katie’s broader tour of Australia, delivering related keynotes. And our chat culminates with some of the most extraordinary aspects of the river journey.
This was recorded a little after Confluence, by the Yarra/Birrarung River in Melbourne/Naarm - the first to be recognised as a living entity in Australian law. Though you might be surprised to learn that recognition doesn’t include the water.
So we start with this monumental story of the river we sit by, and the broader movements it’s part of, then trace our path back to Confluence.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 17 April 2026.
Title image: Katie with Cynthia Mitchell up front (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos in this article & participant Sally Gillespie’s.
Ep 218 - Katie at Aldo Leopold’s shack
Ep 97 - Alessandro Pelizzon
Ep 37 - Nora Bateson
Ep 195 – Dominique Hes
Ep 211 - Jeff Goebel
Music:
River, by Onyx Music (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
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Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
This bonus travelogue traces a walk through Concord, Massachusetts, as we step into the living neighbourhood behind some of the most influential American writers and ideas.
Last week, we celebrated the 300th episode with a visit to the legendary site of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin on the shores of Walden Pond, where he wrote the famous book going by the pond’s name. The next day, we drifted into the town of Concord to visit the Thoreau family home, Henry David’s birthplace.
Then, on our way to his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson’s place up the road, we came across another famous house - Louisa May Alcott’s family home. They were family friends of Emerson and Thoreau, and Louisa became another famous writer in town, as the author of Little Women.
We didn’t have time for the tour, but to our great delight, the two elders who were running the tours, Beth and Anne, were out front and became fascinated by our tour of the country. We were then regaled with some of the awesome stories behind the stories, including of the hundreds of thousands of visitors coming from around the world, often with some surprising connections. They also had plenty to say on the spirit of places like this. They’re in no doubt of it.
After that, we made it to Emerson’s place. But first, the Thoreau’s, reflecting along the way on friendship, mentorship, and the journal practice Emerson urged Thoreau to keep. The thread tying it all together? Perhaps it's attention: noticing what a landscape is asking of us, and deciding how we want to live in response.
If this lands for you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review with a line or question you’re taking with you. Or text or voicemail in via the link above.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 11 September 2024.
Title image: Thoreau's birthplace.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Walden Pond looks like the postcard version of New England, though the first thing I notice is the sound. A semi-trailer growls past, a train snaps by the lake, and a plane cuts the sky. That friction is exactly why I wanted to record this 300th-episode pilgrimage from one of the most iconic places in conservation history, where Henry David Thoreau lived for two years and turned detailed journals into Walden, the renowned masterpiece of nature writing, and cultural and self-examination.
I walk the shoreline, having started at the Walden Center, and follow the trail toward the replica cabin and on to its original site. Along the way I sit with what’s been restored and what’s still under pressure: crystal-clear water filtered through sands and soils, protected land surrounded by encroaching development, and the ongoing question of whether our technologies deliver more than they take. Standing at the stones and reading Thoreau’s “live deliberately” passage where it actually happened makes the idea feel a lot more visceral.
Thoreau’s civil disobedience writing also echoes through Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. And we learn the surprising history of Walden Pond’s stewardship, including an old amusement park that once sprung up alongside these waters. I end up alone at dusk, with night falling and moon rising.
In celebration of the 300th episode, recorded the day after visiting Rachel Carson’s place in what became ep293. I've so looked forward to sharing this with you. The spirit of this place is really something. I hope you enjoy it.
With huge thanks for listening and supporting the podcast through its first 300 episodes!
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 10 September 2024.
Our visit to Aldo Leopold’s shack for ep218.
See some photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music: Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Three West Australian farmers sit down for a sharp, honest Q&A that cuts through the glossy version of “regenerative agriculture” and gets into the real work: what happens when your new practice fails, your numbers get tight, and the supply chain refuses to reward better outcomes. Jake Ryan, Tom Mitchell, and Rod O’Bree share the mindset shifts that keep them moving, from treating mistakes as learnings to building the skill of self-diagnosis when there isn’t a standard playbook to follow.
Today we dust off one last gem from the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in late 2023.
Jake Ryan is a global award-winning vegetable and livestock farmer from Three Ryans farm in Manjimup; Tom Mitchell is an award-winning market gardener from Worrolong Produce near Gin Gin; and Rod O’Bree is the bloke described to me as taking Natural Sequence Farming to the next level (to say nothing of his supply web work with distribution and retail companies) from Yanget farm just inland of Geraldton.
They’d each given a 15 minute presentation, then came together on stage for this terrific Q&A.
For more from the conference:
Ep 298 – the first panel.
Ep 295 – the story I told to kick off the conference.
Ep 188 – the final panel.
Ep 187 – the last panel on day 1.
Ep 180 – the opening night’s film Q&A.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 6 September 2023.
Title image: Tom, Rod, Jake & AJ (by Daniela Tommasi).
Come to Grounded Festival on 22-23 April 2026 (10% discount for paid subscribers).
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
A barley grower sees his farm logo on a beer can prototype and gets emotional, not because it looks cool, but because it represents a long journey to a certified sustainable, low-emissions supply web that holds up under scrutiny. From the stage at the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River back in 2023, we trace how this story runs from soil to sip and why “walk the walk” matters more than a pretty label.
I recently dug into the archives and found some hidden gems from this conference. So episode 295 became the story I told as MC, to kick it off. And today, its first panel, featuring a couple of outstanding stories, and how they came to intertwine.
Before the panel, Senior WA Departmental Economist, Brad Plunkett, presented his research on Tolga farm in Kulin, in WA’s wheatbelt – its dryland production system, business set up, and significant ‘accidental’ carbon related outcomes. Fourth-generation farmer there, Brendon Savage, with his wife Gab, began changing the way they farm 20 years ago, having realised they needed to find ways to become sustainable.
Then we heard from Mel Holland, who co-founded Rocky Ridge Brewing Co in 2017 with her partner Hamish, as a diversification of their fifth-generation family dairy farm in Jindong WA (near Busselton). I’m informed Mel was dubbed Rocky Ridge’s ‘Captain Planet’. Rocky Ridge’s aim? To make incredible beer using the best local produce, farmed in the best way, with the least environmental impact. Rocky Ridge is Australia’s first Certified Sustainable and Carbon Neutral Brewery.
Here, Mel and Brendan take a seat on stage to answer audience questions, and share the story of how they came to combine forces, to achieve these significant and emotional outcomes together.
If you like what you hear, subscribe, share this with a mate who loves good beer or good farming, and leave a review so more people can find the work behind the can.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 6 September 2023.
Title image: Brad, Mel, Brendan & AJ (by Daniela Tommasi).
See more photos on the episode web page.
Join us at Grounded Festival on 22-23 April 2026 (10% discount for paid subscribers).
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Many might think the hardest part of community conflict is finding the “right” solution. What if it’s often something deeper: listening well enough that a solution can even appear?
We’re fresh off the Murray River / Dungala here in Robinvale, Victoria, as our first Confluence journey winds up. And a bloke who came up a bit during a transformative week of paddling, firesides and other yarns was Jeff Goebel.
So while we gently come back to machines, here’s the last 20 minutes or so of my first conversation with Jeff, online, ahead of meeting and witnessing his alchemical facilitation processes in person over in New Mexico. It drifts from the nature of his work, to a pivotal encounter with a glacier, on to how this work is spreading, how the uncanny tends to follow it, and perhaps even how it can help with this and other Rivers.
Welcome to the 10th instalment of Vignettes from the Source, the short form series featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years. Indeed, again, this one hits all three of those marks, and has come up often since the episode was aired.
This was part of the introduction to that episode: ‘Jeff Goebel became a Holistic Management trainer with Allan Savory in the mid-80s. But pretty soon felt it was missing something, as did Allan. Then a series of uncanny events and outstanding successes in Jeff’s life, including a pivotal experience with First Nations, set him on a path of what he calls community consensus work. He is now globally renowned for developing a highly effective program of respectful listening, visioning, and planning that attains 100% consensus - and commitment - of all parties, in all sorts of contexts. And often where human conflict and land degradation are at their worst.’
If you’d like to hear or revisit the conversation in full, head to episode 185 – "Achieving Consensus and Commitment to do the ‘Impossible’".
If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone navigating a hard conflict, and leave us a review with the biggest “impossible” challenge you want to tackle next.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 8 December and released 12 December 2023.
Title image supplied.
Music:
Outro music by Jeremiah Johnson.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Last week’s very special guest was legendary rancher from Chihuahua, Mexico, Alejandro Carrillo. The episode was titled Re-Greening the Largest Hot Desert in North America with Donkeys, Love & Water. In doing that, Alejandro says donkeys have been a ‘secret weapon’. Sound familiar? That’s what Chris Henggeler at Kachana Station has been arguing is the backbone of the extraordinary regeneration he’s managed in the Kimberley region of Western Australia – similarly from dust and rock, to rehydrated soils and grasslands; and similarly, still getting better year on year.
Indeed, Alejandro visited Kachana on his Australian tour recently, and was blown away. But the WA government still intends to have Kachana’s donkeys shot by August.
Tellingly, Alejandro, too, used to kill donkeys as pests, then realised the grave mistake, and lost opportunity, especially with so many landscape, climate and biodiversity challenges right now.
This excerpt from last week’s episode felt worth highlighting as a release on its own this week, given the urgency and importance of what's playing out at Kachana, and given the opportunity this presents further afield.
It starts with Alejandro’s Kachana visit, leading to a fascinating exchange featuring some of the latest research and his successes in landscape regeneration, improved livestock outcomes, and wildfire suppression (growing more grass, not less!) - all with donkeys at the heart of things. And it sums with Alejandro’s proposal for the WA government right now.
If you care about holistic management, soil health, fire risk, and practical regeneration, hit play, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more people can find these ideas.
And if you've not yet heard the conversation in full, you can head to episode 296 here (with some photos) or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 9 March 2026.
Title slide: pride of place on Alejandro’s Christmas card last year.
Music: Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
The Chihuahuan desert could sound like a place you endure, not a place you regenerate, yet Alejandro Carrillo has seen grasslands, birds and beauty take the place of erosion and rocks on the family’s Las Damas Ranch. Conservation organisations now seek this ranch out. And the broader region is now regarded as a regenerative hotspot.
Here we unpack how livestock management, a lineage of too-little-known Mexican legends going back to the beginning of holistic management in the Americas, and a repaired water cycle have “rewatered” country that averages about 230ml of rain and has no rivers, streams or springs.
Along the way, we compare lessons from Mexico, the western US, and Australia, including what Alejandro noticed on his visit to Kachana Station and why a helicopter view made management differences impossible to ignore. And speaking of Kachana, Alejandro calls donkeys a 'secret weapon', and has a suggestion for the WA government as another alternative to its donkey shoot order.
And, of course, we talk about Alejandro’s journey. Far from smooth sailing, we explore the many transformations, stumbles and reasons for his story to never to have happened this way – starting with his father encouraging him to study whatever he wanted, so long as it wasn’t ranching.
Alejandro is loaded with fascinating insights, and also elaborates here on why he still feels optimistic. Though there is more he'd like to see happen. I hope you enjoy the listen.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 9 March 2026.
Title image: the quintessential shot of Alejandro on horseback (inset: as a 7 year old).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Join us at the next Grounded Festival in April (10% discount for paid subscribers).
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
A room full of farmers, food system and other folk. Elders through to young voices. Wadandi Boodja underfoot. A simple, radical idea on the table: put life at the centre of every act and decision, and watch how agriculture transforms from a driver of degradation into a catalyst for healing land, health, and community. That’s the energy we carry back to Margaret River as we share a short presentation I gave to introduce the Regenerative Agriculture conference in Margaret River WA, back in September 2023.
A little dig into the archives this week revealed some hidden gems from that event. I had put out a couple of episodes at the time, featuring all-star panels that were charged with debriefing on each of the two days of that conference. But equally, I’d stored away these other smaller gems, and having come to mind again at the Regenerative Food Systems conference in Perth last year, it still feels like they’re worth dusting off.
So let’s head back to Margs, and start at the start - at once an introduction to a conference and, framed by an old favourite film, an appraisal of what I’d been seeing inspire people like nothing else.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 6 September 2023.
Title image by Daniela Tommasi.
Join us at the next Grounded Festival in April (10% discount for paid subscribers).
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
A life on the edge can sharpen your senses. That’s the unmistakable feeling of hearing Allan Savory recount the untold stories in and around Unsavory, his new memoir spanning childhood, wildlife, war, political exile, and the birth of Holistic Management - the extraordinary global movement regenerating the world’s grasslands, and by extension, everything else.
Allan shares why he resisted writing a memoir and what changed, largely thanks to Jody Butterfield, former journalist wife of over 40 years, and co-founder of the Savory Institute and the Africa Centre for Holistic Management; and Bobby Gill, SI’s Director of Development and Communications, and self-described ‘reformed biomedical engineer turned systems thinker’, prompted by his time as lead scientific reviewer for the US FDA.
The conversation weaves personal turning points with systemic insights: exile in the Caymans and a home emptied; the unlikely, letter-born partnership with Jody; field intuition that saved lives; and the hard-won habit of swallowing bitter pills early to hasten a path to wisdom.
This story isn’t a promise of a silver bullet, but a way to proceed. We also talk about what it would take for one government to model a statesmanlike pivot that others can follow. There’s levity too - army pranks, 'the red dress', cricket framing life, and death - and we close with a moving reading of Kipling’s If.
Now the book is out in the world, I asked Allan, Jody and Bobby, if they would gather with me to talk about it – Allan and Jody from Zimbabwe, and Bobby from Spain.
If this conversation moved you, share it with someone who influences land, policy, or capital. Follow for more and leave a review so others can find it.
Allan in one of this pod's most popular eps.
Allan’s TED talk with 9 million views.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 23 February 2026.
Music:
Call Me Voodoo, by Mooveka (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Now for something a bit different, and really special. Today we’re off to seaside Maine, in the far north east of the US, to visit Rachel Carson’s summer cottage. Here was where Rachel wrote much of her last few books. It was a place she loved, and where she also soaked up her last days in Maine with best friend Dorothy.
It did feel like something of a pilgrimage, visiting the spirit of the woman who is regarded as pivotal in launching the modern environmental movement, with her landmark 1962 book Silent Spring. A response to her dismay and outrage at the impact of pesticides on human and environmental health, it was written, and then defended, under all sorts of ill-considered industry and bureaucratic attacks, while she herself had become ill with cancer.
She actually wrote plenty of other world-shaping stuff before that too. Rachel was a marine biologist whose best-selling sea trilogy preceded Silent Spring. But it was the latter that met the moment like few books have, and shaped generations. Still.
So it was that after visiting Chloe Maxmin and Bill Pluecker ahead of their wonderful successes in the 2024 elections, we headed off along the Sheepscot River a little south, to the place Rachel built ahead of writing her third sea trilogy book, ‘The Edge of the Sea’. This is where we start. And where we finish? Well, let’s just say there was some magic about that day, back in the Fall of ‘24.
Chapter markers (with accompanying images) & transcript.
Rachel Carson Council.
Robert Musil’s piece on Rachel’s cottage.
Recorded 9 September 2024.
Title image: the magazine cover at the Inn.
Join us at Grounded Festival in April (10% discount for paid subscribers).
Support the Strathbogie Disaster Relief Fund, set up by podcast supporters.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
A line of turbulence marks the edge of a burn scar, and the plane starts to buck. That jolt becomes a metaphor for the entire conversation: when we strip biology, we disrupt wind, heat, and water. Restore it, and everything changes. We link Perth to the wet season Kimberley and a bright winter’s day in Beijing to ask a practical question with planetary stakes: how do we turn knowledge into actual regeneration?
Filmmaker and restoration catalyst John D. Liu joins Kachana Station’s Chris Henggeler to map a path from storytelling to soil building. John lays out a simple physics of living systems—grow organic matter, raise canopy height, and infiltrate every drop to repair the lower hydrological cycle and cool the land. Chris brings the Kimberley into focus: lightning seasons, split-second fire calls, and the creation of microclimates through tight management. Together they propose Kachana as a living laboratory and virtual university—open to researchers, engineers, and restoration communities.
We update you on the donkey controversy and opportunity still alive, and hear the call for evidence-based policy that aligns regulation with how soft systems self-regulate. We explore the remarkable rise (and unexpected beginning) of Ecosystem Restoration Communities, why peer-to-peer learning scales faster than conferences, and how true wealth should be tied to functional ecosystems and healthy watersheds. From canopy height to hydrological function, from policy design to ethical investment, from daily fieldwork to music and shared meals, this is a blueprint for turning concern into coordinated action.
Note: the Australian Story episode on Kachana has now eclipsed 1.5m views. And this episode celebrates the International Year of Rangelands & Pastoralists.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 12 February 2026.
Join us at Grounded Festival (10% discount for paid subscribers).
Join the wait list for the Murray River Confluence.
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
And John on guitar.
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We’re off to Parliament House in Canberra today. But don’t let that put you off. Hot off the press, the Regenerative Food & Farming Alliance (RFFA) has just launched there.
The Alliance has been brought together with many a guest on this podcast over the years. Though one woman behind it all – and so much else – is someone I have been looking forward to having on the podcast since we met a few years ago. Rebecca Gorman is a highly respected former journalist turned farmer, philanthropist and company director, and she has been a key figure in convening the new Alliance.
We speak about the launch, the Alliance of course, the appetite for it, Rebecca's fascinating back story bringing her to this moment, even some initial reticence to this path, some varied influences, what she's seen work over the decades, how the Alliance will work, what's next, how we can back it in, the extraordinary hidden costs of the current systems, and full circle to how it feels for Rebecca to find herself here in the light of some early heartbreaks in life, and how that has spurred her connections with First Nations peoples. And she sings for us at the end, in honour of some other passions in life.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 11 February 2026.
Title image sourced here.
Please support the Strathbogie Disaster Relief Fund, hosted by the Australian Communities Foundation.
Join us at the next Grounded Festival in April (10% discount on offer for paid subscribers on Patreon or Substack).
Join the wait list for the Murray River Confluence journey.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Working the Fields, by Falconer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the 10th year of the podcast! And thank you. As an entirely listener supported show, it only happens thanks to listeners like you.
To start off the year, another form of thanks, and tribute, to a guest from 2023 who was so wonderful, as much for his brilliance as his grace. I’m talking of the late Manchán Magan, acclaimed Irish travel writer, documentary maker, radio producer, theatre performer, builder of the first straw-bale house in Ireland, regenerator of the 10 acre block it stands on, and best-selling author. Manchán died in October last year at an age not too senior to mine, just a couple of months after a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Beautifully, I’ve learned he and long-term partner Aisling married a few weeks before he died. Aisling described how they fell in love too, as she later posthumously accepted the Best Irish-Published Book of the Year award for Manchán's latest work ‘Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun)’. You can find that story here.
Manchán and I signed off our podcast chat looking forward to meeting, given the various threads emerging at the time, including tracing more of my roots back to Ireland, and the connections between those roots and Aboriginal cultures and Country here - so a little slice of me cut away with the news too. But what a blessing to have had that yarn. Thanks Manchán for your fleeting but unforgettable presence in my life. And of course, for being so much more for so many more people all over the place. That, no doubt, will continue on. Right now, in fact.
For here are the last 25 minutes or so of my conversation with Manchán from a couple of years ago. So much to love in just this small window.
To listen to the full episode with Manchán, and find further links, head to episode 173. Recorded with thanks to the Derby Aboriginal Media Corporation, at 6DBY deadly Derby radio in the West Kimberley, on the heels of the Aboriginal Irish festival in Fremantle WA.
Title image source.
Chapters and transcripts.
Music: The Blackbird (Irish Song Dance), by Ennis, Morrison and Muller (from Artlist).
Thanks again for listening, and for supporting The RegenNarration.
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You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Just one final highlight from last year, before we kick off the new series. Well, it was actually from 2024, but an excerpt of it was played last year, when the latest book from 5x New York Times best-selling author and friend, Paul Hawken, was released - Carbon: The Book of Life.
That 2024 episode and 2025 excerpt featured Paul doing a world premiere reading of the final passage of the book, in his sun-drenched garden in northern California. Today, the last minute of that reading, for your pure listening pleasure.
If you’re inspired to listen to more, or to revisit the rest of our conversation, you’ll find it at episode 204.
Title image: Paul in the garden (pic: Olivia Cheng)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Next up, the new series for 2026 ...
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You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Ok, just a couple more bite size highlights from last year. Well, this one was actually from a few years ago, but an excerpt of it was played last year - titled A Laugh, a Cry and a Touchstone Moment, featuring Tyson Yunkaporta. And indeed, this passage in particular might still be the most moving and funny of the entire podcast. Certainly, the opening gambit has continued to come up in conversation ever since.
Tyson belongs to the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York in far north Queensland, with community/cultural ties all over Australia. He is the author multiple books, including Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. He’s also a poet and artist carving traditional tools and weapons, processes that were central to writing the book.
If you’d like to hear or revisit our conversation in full, head to episode 70 – ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’ (there are a bunch of links in those show notes too, and a very special photo from this conversation on that episode website).
Title image: Tyson Yunkaporta (supplied)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode concludes with this incredibly special and personal group of episodes, from the heart of Mayan culture, Guatemala, Central America.
This was actually the first series recorded in 2025, but took a lot more time to produce given the episodes released in both Spanish and English. And it was so worth it.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist) (eps 285-8)
0.21 - Patrik Mucía (ep 285 and in Spanish), at IMAP, by Lago de Atitlán
0.59 - Don Ceferino de Paz González (ep 286 and in Spanish), Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz
1.24 - Cándido Reyes (ep 287 and in Spanish), La Nueva Libertad
1.40 - Aníbal de Paz (ep 288 and in Spanish), Lago Petén Itzá
2.06 - Regeneration, by Amelia Barden (theme music)
3.25 - Out-take with my translator in Baltimore, Dana Scott
Title image: view of the nearby volcano from the tour at IMAP (pic: Olivia Cheng)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with some pinnacle moments from the huge week in Western Australia on our return home.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Oral McGuire (ep 279), Noongar leader, with possibly the quote of the Regenerative Food Systems conference, Perth Stadium WA
0.28 - My day's summary at that conference (ep 280), with Barefoot, by Mark Grundhoefer (from Artlist)
1.40 - Heidi Mippy (ep 281), Bridgetown WA (at the 2nd running of the Grounded Festival, and the 1st in WA, bringing home a huge week of events)
2.10 - Ian Haggerty (ep 282), also at Grounded Festival
2.33 - Rowdy, by The Lonely Ramblers (from Artlist) (ep 282)
2.42 - Matthew Evans (ep 283), heralding the final session of Grounded
Title image: AJ, Heidi, Di & Ian Haggerty at Grounded (pic: Alan Benson)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with the final series recorded in the US, perhaps our most moving visit of all, at Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet Nation, with Long Time Charging Woman, Kim Paul, and colleague Andrew Berger.
With an additional episode featuring a couple of filmmakers behind the documentary filmed on Blackfeet Nation, Bring Them Home.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Kim Paul (ep 276), Blackfeet Nation, Montana, with Flight of the Inner Bird, by Yehezkel Raz feat. Sivan Talmor (from Artlist)
0.51 - Andrew Berger (ep 277)
1.36 - Daniel Glick (ep 278), recorded in Denver, Colorado, alongside ...
1.59 - Melissa Grumhaus (ep 278)
Title image: Andrew, Kim & AJ at Chief Mountain (pic: Olivia Cheng)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with a couple of West Australians spread across the state, one very famous, one should be.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Stuart McAlpine (ep 272), award-winning farmer from the WA wheatbelt, with his own track Country Cousin (ahead of a major regenerative food systems conference)
1.28 - Tim Winton (ep 275), regarded as the preeminent Australian writer of his time, in Fremantle for the launch of his new book Ningaloo: Australia's Wild Wonder
Title image: Stuart on the farm (supplied)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with two of the most extraordinary ancient places and cultures we visited. And last stop with a legend and friend in California.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Dana Scott (ep 264 and 265), Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, with Chauen, by Angel Salazar (from Artlist).
1.38 - Xavier Michael Young (ep 268), Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, Wyoming
2.23 - Jason Baldes (ep 269), Initiative Director
2.59 - Paul Hawken (ep 270), California
Title image: Buffalo kin at the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative (pic: Anthony James)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with the trinity of episodes (and bonus extra) from the Osage Nation in current day Oklahoma.
It was an exceptional opportunity to speak with the Chief, featuring a powerful exchange capped by some funny anecdotes (one of each is in this clip). And Jann's breathtaking music accompanies the lot here, played on the Grand Piano of her ancestors relating back to the time depicted in the blockbuster movie Killers of the Flower Moon. All thanks to local filmmaker and friend, Nicol Ragland.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Nicol Ragland (ep 261), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (introducing the series)
0.46 - Piano piece played by Dr Jann Hayman (from ep 263)
1.32 - Chief Standing Bear (ep 262)
2.26 - Dr Jann Hayman (ep 263), Secretary of Natural Resources for the Osage Nation
3.50 - Dawn Wormington (ep 263 bonus) (with a funny tale from the filming of Killers of the Flower Moon)
Title image: Chief Standing Bear (supplied)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with two of the guests with the greatest soundscapes of the year.
I just love the sound and spirit of African American elder, Lorenzo Washington, captured in this clip. And the clip from Christopher, with one of the great urban restoration stories, became somewhat of a catch phrase for our American journey - like stepping through a portal.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Lorenzo Washington (ep 259), Nashville, Tennessee, with Jefferson St tribute by Nashville’s Queen of the Blues, Marion James.
1.15 - Christopher Brown (ep 260), East Austin, Texas
Title image: Lorenzo outside the Jefferson Street Sound Museum (aka his house!) (pic: Olivia Cheng)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode.
These were a few of the best community-generated stories of the year, strongly among the listener favourites. I love this particular mini-highlight reel - the way the music plays off what these folk have to say, culminating in Jenny treating us to an impromptu rendition of an old Irish hymn. Unforgettable.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing:
0m - Cathy McGowan (ep 254), with Sal Kimber doing a famous cover
0.33 - Dr Blake Scott (ep 256), for The MARSH (Marsh Appreciation and Restoration Society for Happiness) Project, Charleston, South Carolina
1.07 - Galaxy Groove, by Yarin Primak (from Artlist) (ep 256)
1.16 - Joel Caldwell, alongside Blake Scott (ep 256)
1.48 - Jenny Finn (ep 257), Floyd, Virginia
2.13 - Jenny sings an old Irish hymn
Title image: Joel Caldwell and Dr Blake Scott on the clean up beat (pic: Anthony James)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
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Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode continues, with these snippets from ep 252, the most popular episode of the year.
0m - Patrick MacManaway, in Burlington, Vermont
0.41 - Hours, by Patrick Sebag (from Artlist).
1.19 - Patrick MacManaway plays the penny whistle
Title image: Patrick on-location in his home town of Burlington, Vermont, USA.
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode.
Today you're hearing Dan Kittredge, in excited revelation, then song, from Michigan. And a little from me celebrating episode 250, down the road in Maryland. Love it when guests take off with the closing tune. Dan Kittredge, exhibit A in 2025. (Should have got him to sing at the end of the year too, on the Grounded Festival episodes.)
Title image: Dan Kittredge (supplied)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode. Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing today:
0m - AJ on the legendary Mongabay Newscast podcast with Mike DiGirolamo (ep 248)
0.35 - Damon Gameau (ep 249), leading into We are the Kids, by Bunny Racket, drawn from a great moment in the film Future Council (also one of my personal favourite curatorial moments in the year's highlights package)
Title image: The Future Council with Damon Gameau
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to our curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up episode.
Here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing, from ep 247:
0m - Introducing the new year of episodes, from Antigua, Guatemala
0.18 - Matthew Evans, leading into the spectacular 'My Mother, The Mountain', by Claire Anne Taylor
2.31 - Sadie Chrestman.
Title image: Matthew and Sadie (supplied)
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our wonderful guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And thanks for listening and supporting the podcast!
Chapter markers
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Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome to 2026, with a curtain-raiser series of bite size highlights drawn from the 2025 wrap up.
2025 started with a summer series featuring nine episodes I produced a few years ago for The RegenNarration spin-off podcast Clean State, focused on regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. That series included previously unheard conversations and still has plenty of currency.
Here's how I previewed it a year ago in ep 236. And here are the voices, places and tunes you're hearing today:
0m - Chantal Caruso (ep 237), with Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra
0.39 - Dr Gary Kendrick (ep 238)
0.50 - Dr Vanessa Rauland (ep 239)
1.10 - Shannon Leigh (ep 240)
1.28 - Dale Tilbrook (ep 241)
1.43 - Stephen King (ep 242)
2.07 - Cindy Stevens (with husband Simon Wallwork) (ep 243)
2.36 - A little Station ID (ep 244), with A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper (from Free Music Archive), for the ep with Jess Beckerling, now a WA MP
2.55 - Clinton Walker in language (ep 245), of Murujuga in WA (awarded World Heritage status last year)
3.26 - Clinton Walker in English (ep 245), with Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
To access all episodes, including the full 2025 highlights package in ep 289, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos), or wherever you get your podcasts.
With thanks to our guests and the musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
Title image: Clinton Walker at Murujuga (from his website).
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The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
What an incredible year. There was certainly dark stuff, but if you were ever in doubt there was plenty to revel in, welcome to the highlights from a unique and far-reaching year on the podcast.
You’ll hear highlight selections from our guests throughout 2025, accompanied by some of the music they often played or sung themselves, and the sounds of Country as we travelled across multiple continents, countries and languages.
This year featured a record 54 episodes, 4 with bilingual editions, and over a dozen bonus extras and vignettes. Most episodes were conversations, with 5 panels too, 1 documentary style production, 1 fan mail episode and this highlights reel.
There were 67 guests, around half Aussie and half international, almost all of them on-location, just under a quarter First Nations, and from all walks of life.
Once again listening to it all in one place today has been incredible. I hope you enjoy it too.
And I hope you’ve enjoyed the podcast as a whole this year. As another year ends, huge thanks to all you generous subscribers and other supporting listeners, for making it possible. I’ll continue my shout outs, exclusives and other bonus bits next year, and as we enter the podcast’s 10th year, I’ll reach out with a few new things too.
Thanks also for your wonderful correspondence this year. And to everyone who sheltered, fed and generally cared for us throughout the year, around Australia, Guatemala and the States, thank you.
With enormous thanks also, to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
And finally, thanks so much for listening.
The track list for this episode, identifying the people, places and tunes, is in the chapter list.
Chapter markers.
Title image: Glacier National Park, on Blackfeet Nation, northern Montana USA (pic: Anthony James).
Find more:
To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to the website (where there’ll often be photos with each episode) or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks again for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you in 2026!
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
NOTE: This version of this week’s episode is in Spanish. You'll find the English translated version in your podcast feed too.
Aníbal de Paz era un joven en Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, cuando yo era joven y vivía allí a principios del siglo. Había nacido en la guerra de los años 80, se convirtió en un mensajero para la resistencia de niño, era adolescente cuando se firmaron los Acuerdos de Paz en 1996, y unos años después, cuando nos conocimos y nos hicimos amigos, fue chófer y confidente de su padre, Don Ceferino de Paz González, mi invitado en el episodio 286, cuando asumió la alcaldía.
Aníbal posee una presencia de sabiduría adquirida con esfuerzo, fruto de una vida única, con un prominente padre Maya Achí y una madre discretamente formidable. El habla con una sensibilidad poética también.
Todo esto se hace aún más evidente, ya que acabábamos de pasar el día en la antigua ciudad Maya de Tikal, a unos 300 km o 6 horas en coche al noreste de Fray, junto con la esposa de Aníbal, la Q'eqchí Josefina Choc Tiul, y sus maravillosas hijas. Era la primera visita de las niñas.
Al final de un día agotador, nuestras familias se acostaron, mientras el y yo salíamos para tener una última conversación antes de despedirnos. Ellos debían regresar a Fray antes del amanecer.
Están a punto de escuchar un perfil profundamente sentido y observado de una vida, un país y, en muchos sentidos, una dinámica global que muchos de nosotros estamos sintiendo con mayor intensidad estos días. Es abierto y real, esperanzador e instructivo, sobre el poder, las decisiones de vida o muerte, y cómo afrontar los cambios generacionales en tiempos como estos. Es un privilegio haber sido una parte en la historia de Aníbal, y a compartir esto con ustedes ahora.
Grabado al Lago Petén Itzá, el 18 de enero de 2025.
Gracias a Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott por traducir esto para la versión en inglés.
Foto principal: Aníbal y la lancha en la cual hablábamos.
Vea más fotos en la página web del episodio y, para ver más del detrás de cámaras, conviértase en oyente colaborador a continuación.
Música:
Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).
Regeneration, de Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Aníbal de Paz was a young man in Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, when I was a young man living there at the turn of the century. He had been born into war in the 80s, became a runner for the resistance as a boy, was a teenager as peace broke out in the 90s, and in his 20s, when we met and became friends, he was driver and confidant for his father, Don Ceferino de Paz González, my guest in episode 286, when he became Mayor.
Aníbal carries a presence of hard-won wisdom, born of a unique life, with a prominent Maya Achí father, and quietly formidable mother. And he speaks with such poetic sensibility, though scarcely literate in the formal sense.
All this comes to the fore all the more, as we’ve just spent the day at the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, along with Anibal’s wife, Q’eqchí woman Josefina Choc Tiul, and their wonderful daughters. It was the children’s first visit.
At the end of an exhausting day, both our families settled into bed, while we headed out to have one last conversation, plenty of it we’d never talked about, before saying our farewells. They were to head back to Fray before the dawn.
You’re about to hear a deeply felt and observed profile of a life, a country, and in many ways, a global dynamic that many of us are feeling more acutely these days. It is raw and real, hopeful and instructive, about power, choices of life and death, and how to navigate generational shifts in times like these.
It’s my privilege to have landed in the midst of Aníbal’s story through a couple of narrow windows, yet wide enough to be able to share this with you now.
It was still noisy on the street out front, near the town of El Remate in El Petén province. So we soon moved down to the beautiful Lake Petén Itzá, via a now permanently flooded jetty, and found a boat.
Thanks again to old mate from those first Guatemala times, Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott, for so generously translating and speaking the Spanish in English.
Recorded 18 January 2025.
Title image: Aníbal on the jetty the day before (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
NOTE: This version of this week’s episode is in Spanish. You'll find the English translated version in your podcast feed too.
Bienvenidos de nuevo a Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, para continuar con una serie especial desde Guatemala, Centroamérica.
Al regresar a este lugar que fue mi hogar durante unos años a principios de siglo, no sabía quién estaría, aún seguiría vivo.
Pensé que mis viejos amigos Cándido Reyes y su esposa Maricela, si todavía estaban aquí, seguirían en la comunidad de retornados que ayudaron a fundar 30 años antes, llamada La Nueva Libertad, a solo unos kilómetros del pueblo de Fray.
Pero después de tantos años, no tenía forma de recordar cuál era su casa, una vieja dirección de correo electrónico no funcionaba, y una antigua oficina suya en el pueblo ya es un restaurante.
Así que pregunté por ahí y al fin recibí la información que los encontraría en las instalaciones actuales de la legendaria ONG para la que siguen trabajando, Adelina Caal Maquín (ACM). Esa trabaja con mujeres, jóvenes, soberanía alimentaria, agroecología y, más recientemente, una escuela secundaria de desarrollo comunitario sostenible.
Al día siguiente, sin poder avisar y con cierta timidez, fui a buscarlos. La conversación fue tan maravillosa, que luego Cándido y yo grabamos esta conversación mientras dimos un paseo por La Nueva.
Comenzamos en ACM, paseamos por los huertos, la comunidad, sus escuelas, su innovadora cooperativa, y nos adentramos en las extraordinarias historias de sus vidas y de este lugar. Tras los horrores de la guerra, exploramos la época de Cándido como joven organizador de la resistencia, y cómo luego regresó como líder en la formación de la cooperativa y la comunidad.
Hablamos de los enormes éxitos y desafíos de la cooperativa, de la reconexión con los ancestros, los cambios de Fray y de Guatemala, de la empresa de procesamiento de alimentos, de reflexiones sobre su vida hasta ahora, y de su irreducible fe en lo posible.
Cándido es un tipo muy inteligente y bien chistoso. Y aquí, están iluminando un camino para Guate y, en muchos sentidos, para todos nosotros.
Grabado el 14 de enero de 2025.
Foto por Olivia Cheng.
Vea más fotos en el sitio de web y, para ver más del detrás de cámaras, conviértase en oyente colaborador a continuación.
Música:
Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).
Regeneration, de Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz, as we continue a special series from Guatemala, Central America.
I wish I’d recorded how I came to find today’s guest. In returning to this place that was home for a few years back at the turn of the century, I didn’t know who’d still be around, alive even.
I figured that my old friends Cándido Reyes and his wife Maricela, if they were still around, would be in the returned refugee community they helped set up 30 years prior, called la Nueva Libertad (the New Freedom), just a few kilometres out of town. But after so many years, I had no chance of remembering which house was theirs, an old email address didn’t work, and an old office of theirs in town was now a restaurant.
So I asked around, and eventually got the tip I’d find them in the current facility of the legendary non-profit they continue to work for called Adelina Caal Maquín (ACM) – working with women, youth, food sovereignty, agro-ecology and, more recently, a residential secondary school in sustainable community development.
Anyway, next day, unannounced and with some timidity, I went to find them. Catching up was so wonderful and compelling, later Cándido and I pressed record on a walk around La Nueva.
We start at ACM, wander around the gardens, the community, its schools, its innovative cooperative set up, and delve into the extraordinary stories of their lives and this place. Emerging from the horrors of war, we explore Cándido's time as a young resistance organizer, and how he later returned as a leader in the formation of the coop and community.
We talk about the coop’s enormous successes and challenges, reconnecting with ancestors, the changing face of Fray and Guatemala, the exciting food processing venture, reflections on a life so far, and his unflinching belief in what’s possible.
Cándido is sharp, resilient and very funny. And out here, they’re lighting a beacon for Guate, and in many ways, for us all.
Thanks again to Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott for generously translating and speaking the Spanish in English.
Let’s head to la Nueva Libertad.
Recorded 14 January 2025.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome to a series within the series from Guatemala, Central America – three stories from three menI admire most in the world. Each different but related. Each from a different generation. And each navigating the last couple of decades differently since I spent time with them, in the municipality of Fray Bartolome de las Casas, in the central province of Alta Verapaz.
This is the story of a place too, in that sense. A place that’s been through the worst of things and some of the best of human endeavours as well. Offering us all some hard-won wisdom on how to transcend the former and tend the latter, even achieve some remarkable outcomes at times, but perhaps above all, how to live well regardless of those outcomes.
First up, then, it’s a privilege to share my conversation with Don Ceferino de Paz González. Don Cef was Mayor of Fray when I arrived offering my services, a gringo with, at that stage, no organisational or financial backing.
Don Cef had not long been elected, only a few years after the Peace Accords that formally ended a bloody decades-long war. He was then part of the political party that emerged from the guerrilla resistance. A mere boy when he joined that resistance, he’d dodged death, rose through the ranks, and then in peace time, became Mayor not once, but twice.
21 years since I last saw him, we met at his home in Fray. He’d hardly changed, still looking sprightly at age 80. And generously, this proud, articulate, still optimistic Maya Achí elder, was up for a chat – full, frank and open.
We sat out on the patio, late morning. The humidity and heat were on the rise amidst the lush green of these traditional Mayan tropical lowlands. And as we go, we drift deeper into personal terrain. And to take us out, he agrees to pick up the guitar.
Today’s episode is also tribute to my late mentor, systems thinking pioneer and much-loved figure, Professor Frank Fisher, on the 82nd anniversary of his birth.
Thanks again to Dana Scott for so generously translating the Spanish into English.
Recorded 14 January 2025.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
NOTE: This version of this week’s episode is in Spanish. You'll find the English translated version in your podcast feed too. (Gracias a Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott por su generosa traducción.)
Bienvenidos a una serie dentro de la serie desde Guatemala, Centroamérica: tres historias de tres hombres a los que admiro muchísimo en el mundo. Cada uno diferente, pero relacionado. Cada uno de una generación distinta. Y cada uno navegando las últimas dos décadas de forma distinta desde que pasé tiempo con ellos, en el municipio de Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Alta Verapaz.
En ese sentido, esta es también la historia de un lugar. Un lugar que ha pasado por lo peor y también por lo mejor de la humanidad. Nos ofrece sabiduría adquirida con esfuerzo sobre cómo superar lo primero y cuidar lo segundo, incluso lograr resultados notables en ocasiones, pero quizás sobre todo, cómo vivir bien independientemente de esos resultados.
Primero que nada, es un privilegio compartir mi conversación con Don Ceferino de Paz González. Don Ceferino es Maya Achí, y era alcalde de Fray cuando llegué a ofrecer mis servicios, un gringo sin, en ese momento, respaldo organizativo ni financiero.
Don Cef había sido elegido hacía poco, apenas unos años después de los Acuerdos de Paz que pusieron fin formalmente a una sangrienta guerra de décadas. Por aquel entonces formaba parte del partido político surgido de la resistencia guerrillera. Siendo apenas un niño cuando se unió a esa resistencia, esquivó la muerte, ascendió en la jerarquía y, en tiempos de paz, llegó a ser alcalde no una, sino dos veces.
21 años después de la última vez que lo vi, nos reunimos en su casa de Fray. A sus 80 años, generosamente, este hombre orgulloso, elocuente y aún optimista, estaba dispuesto a charlar con sinceridad y franqueza.
Nos sentamos en el patio. La humedad y el calor subían entre el verde de estas tradicionales tierras tropicales mayas. Y a medida que avanzamos, nos adentramos más en terreno personal. Y para terminar, acepta tocar la guitarra.
El episodio de hoy también rinde homenaje a mi difunto mentor, pionero del pensamiento sistémico y figura muy querida, el profesor Frank Fisher, en el 82.º aniversario de su nacimiento.
Grabado el 14 de enero de 2025.
Vea más fotos en la página web del episodio y, para ver más del detrás de cámaras, conviértase en oyente colaborador a continuación.
Música:
Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).
Regeneration, de Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist.
Send us a voicemail
Support the show
Hit play, share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, subscribe if you can, and enjoy the hundreds of episodes available.
The RegenNarration is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber, gain access to a great community and some exclusive benefits, and help keep the show going - on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find writing too).
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks for your support!
Welcome to another very special series of episodes. This time, from my return to an old haunt back at the turn of the century, in beautiful current day Guatemala, Central America. Deep in the heart of Mayan Country and culture.
To have the opportunity to share these with you here, is beyond what I ever imagined possible. I couldn’t be more grateful, including to Dana Scott for so generously translating and speaking the Spanish in English, for me to overdub for you here. A version of all four episodes in the series will go out in both Spanish and English.
First up, a story I’m so glad to be able to share with you - a visit to the Meso-American Permaculture Institute on the shores of the world wonder called Lago de Atitlan (Lake Atitlan). You may have heard my conversation with Maria Inés Cuj and Rony Lec, current and former directors of the Institute, a few years ago in episode 113, when they won a major global award after 20+ years of trailblazing gutsy work.
This time, we were fortunate to be able to visit in person, and be shown around this centre of ceremony, education and regeneration – a literal cross-cultural lifeline for the community, the lake, and beyond.
Initially, I’d just had the phone recording going to capture our arrival, but it got interesting straight up, with Inés and her colleague Patrik Mucia so warmly welcoming us in their ceremonial ground (after we’d spent untold hours scrambling to catch 2 boats, 2 tuk tuks, and 1 pickup to get there).
After that, Patrik takes us for a walk. This young Mayan man is a great communicator, including about his story - how the Institute prompted his return to Mayan culture and his introduction to permaculture. And while we walk, the gardens sing.
Recorded 15 December 2024.
Title slide: AJ and Patrik (by Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Salta Montes, by Migra (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
NOTE: This version of this week’s episode is in Spanish. You'll find the English translated version in your podcast feed too.
Hoy lanzamos una nueva serie de episodios muy especiales. Esta vez, desde mi regreso a un lugar donde vivia a principios del siglo, en la hermosa Guatemala, Centroamérica. En pleno corazón de la cultura y tierra Maya.
Para empezar, una visita al Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura, a orillas de la maravilla del mundo llamada Lago de Atitlán. Quizás recuerden mi conversación con María Inés Cuj y Rony Lec, director actual y anterior del Instituto, hace algunos años en el episodio 113, cuando recibieron un importante premio internacional tras más de 20 años de trabajo pionero y valiente.
Esta vez, nos llenó de alegría poder visitar en persona este centro de ceremonias, educación y regeneración, un verdadero salvavidas intercultural para la comunidad, el lago y más allá.
Al principio, solo tenía la grabación del teléfono para registrar nuestra llegada, pero la cosa se puso interesante enseguida, cuando Inés y su colega Patrik Mucia nos recibieron con tanta calidez en su espacio ceremonial.
Después, Patrik nos lleve a dar un paseo. Este hombre Maya es un gran comunicador, incluso sobre su historia: cómo el Instituto impulsó su regreso a su cultura Maya, y su introducción a la permacultura. Y mientras caminamos, ¡los jardines cantan!
Grabado por el 15 de Diciembre 2024.
Foto principal: AJ y Patrik (por Olivia Cheng).
Puedes ver más fotos en la página web del episodio en inglés y, para obtener más información detrás de escena, conviértete en oyente de apoyo a continuación.
Música:
Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).
Regeneration, por Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
Aquí les presento un adelanto del lanzamiento de una serie de episodios muy especial para finales de 2025. Esta vez, viene de mi regreso a un lugar en donde vivía yo a principios del siglo, en la hermosa Guatemala, Centroamérica. En pleno corazón de la cultura y tierra Maya.
Entre las bendiciones que tuve entonces se encontraban amistades con personas queridas, descendientes de esas raíces ancestrales. Y durante los meses que pasamos allí a principios de este año y a finales del pasado, tuve la oportunidad de grabar cuatro episodios.
Tener la oportunidad de compartir esto con ustedes aquí supera cualquier expectativa. Estoy sumamente agradecido. Y gracias a Dana ‘Patricio’ Scott, se emitirá una versión de los cuatro episodios en español e inglés.
Todo empieza mañana. ¡Espero que nos acompañen!
Foto: de la visita guiada en IMAP (por Olivia Cheng).
Música: Salta Montes, de Migra (fuente: Artlist).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
Welcome to a preview of another very special series of episodes to end 2025. This time, from my return to an old haunt back at the turn of the century, in beautiful current day Guatemala, Central America. Deep in the heart of Mayan Country and culture.
Among my blessings back then were cherished friendships with some dear people descendent of those ancient roots. And in the months we were back there earlier this year and late last, I had the chance to record four episodes.
To have the opportunity to share these with you here, is beyond what I ever imagined possible. All translated by my dear friend in Baltimore who was with me in the latter part of my time in Guate, who you might remember from the recent episodes from Chaco Canyon in New Mexico (eps 264 and 5). With great thanks to Dana, a version of all four episodes will go out in both Spanish and English.
It all starts tomorrow. I hope you’ll join us!
Title slide: from the tour at IMAP (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music: Salta Montes, by Migra (sourced from Artlist).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
One of the most rewarding parts of doing this podcast is hearing from listeners – from you. On this occasion, I heard from a listener who has also been a generous subscriber for a couple of years now. Vicky Winton is a credentialed archaeologist, with her own riveting story to tell. She graciously shared some of that story with me. I relay some of it here, though I’ll leave most of that telling to her some time.
Here’s what I’d like to share from our correspondence, before I patch in what Vicki courageously sent me to share with you too.
Vicky wrote: ‘Grounded left me feeling sad in ways I can’t put my finger on. Not sure what to make of such a response. Hopefully some kind of galvanising. Seems taboo to mention sadness, like it’s disloyal to the cause of sorting things out for the better. Defeatist.’
This started our exchange, which summed to this - Vicky humbly, reluctantly, generously agreeing to record her reading of a Sonnet she had composed in the wake of the festival. And a bit more besides.
Title image: AJ, Heidi Mippy, Di & Ian Haggerty in the session at Grounded that became episode 281 (pic: Alan Benson).
Music:
Music by Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
My host platform's automatic AI title suggestions for this episode were:
- The Riotous Wrap
- Turning a Closing Panel into a Playful Showdown
- When a Nutrient Density Guy Meets A Festival Founder and a Referee (guess that's me!), Chaos Ensues
- Taste as Truth
- If A Carrot Had Wi-Fi, It Would Ghost Your Microwave
Gives you an idea. Today we conclude our series from the Grounded Festival here in Australia, with a grand finale of a different flavour. Festival founder, curator, farmer, writer, broadcaster, Matthew Evans, had offered the slot to Dan Kittredge, also a farmer, and globally renowned advocate for nutrient density (you may have heard him on the podcast for episode 250 while we were still in his native US).
Dan subsequently suggested to Matthew they do something different – that Matthew join Dan on stage, to challenge him a little. Matthew then turned to me to see if I’d round out the unholy trinity, in case Dan got out of hand (not really … well, maybe). Anyway, what everyone who was there that day all agreed on, was that this turned out to be a riot – a grounded, cosmic, hysterical end to a wonderful festival. And no one was spared.
Let’s head back to Galloway Springs Farm near Bridgetown WA, one more time.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 20 September 2025.
Title image: AJ, Matthew & Dan on stage (pic: Alan Benson).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Early bird tix for Grounded 2026 are out now, with a 10% discount for podcast subscribers, with thanks again to the festival team (I’ve sent the code to you on Patreon and Substack).
Music:
Rowdy, by The Lonely Ramblers (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
Continuing our series today from Grounded Festival here in Australia, a conversation with West Australians of the Year, pioneers of Natural Intelligence Farming, and so much more beyond the farm, Dianne and Ian Haggerty.
We talk about what it’s been like being West Aussies of the Year, and farmers. And go from there, once again, into some emotional and hilarious exchanges, on what’s emerging from the year, how different things feel now, and the call to all parties to rally now towards some bigger visions.
Weaved into all that, we also further explore the incredible week that was here in WA, including their three big events: from the launch of a new Alliance at Government House, to a tour on-farm ahead of the Regenerating Food Systems conference (featured on the podcast in recent weeks), through to their first enormous community showcase event.
As it happens, the new Alliance you’ll hear about has its first development workshop today – so more on that soon. There was so much to talk about. Let’s head back to the sun-drenched green of Galloway Springs farm.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 20 September 2025.
Title image: AJ, Di and Ian on stage (pic: Alan Benson).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Rowdy, by The Lonely Ramblers (sourced from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
Straight after the Regenerating Food Systems conference you’ve been hearing from in recent weeks, we headed south for the Grounded Festival. It was my privilege to host proceedings there on the last day, in one of the two marquees by the lake, on the wonderful Galloway Springs Farm near Bridgetown. There were three panel conversations there that the team at Grounded has generously allowed me to share here.
Those panels happened to be such emotional, substantial and funny pinnacles of what had been an extraordinary week as a whole here in WA – from Government House, through the conference at the city Stadium, to this festival in the field.
These panel conversations offer something of a debrief on the week, some significant early outcomes and resolutions, and the spirit that had summed along the way.
First up, then, the morning panel, still reverberating for many, featuring three people who had been at the three major events – and some others - through the week:
- West Australians of the Year, farmers and previous podcast guests, Di and Ian Haggerty; and
- Noongar and Thin-ma Warriyanka woman and also a previous podcast guest, Heidi Mippy.
On the topic of First Nations Integration into the Food System. And how this yarn builds.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 20 September 2025.
Title image: AJ, Heidi, Di and Ian on stage (pic: Alan Benson).
See more photos on the episode web page, including the illustration by Brenna Quinlan, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
If you’d like to see that image of the Wagyl on Heidi’s first visit to the Haggerty farm, head to episode 143.
Music:
Barefoot, by Mark Grundhoefer (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help keep the show on the road - and gain access to a great community, your host, and exclusive benefits - on Patreon or Substack.
You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
I hope to see you at an event, and The RegenNarration shop too.
With great thanks also, for your spreading the word!
Last week’s episode and bonus extra featured the first panel conversation and my MC's introduction, respectively, to the Regenerating Food Systems conference hosted by RegenWA last month at Perth Stadium. Today, a final brief instalment from that event – a summary of all that happened during day one. With a little experiment.
I was relieved and grateful when a bunch of people came up to me afterwards to say how much they appreciated that experiment. One person I respect even asked if they could access a recording of it. Well, there was a recording, and you’re listening to a podcaster of course, so maybeit could be podcast fodder. Could be a good way to share a taste of what went down with you too. It sure was an outstanding day.
So I gave it a listen back (thanks to RegenWA), and on balance, it got the green light. As always, you’ll let me know if it shouldn’t have. But here it is. My ten-minute close to day one of the Regenerating Food Systems conference.
Here’s the conference program if you feel like tracing who I’m referencing throughout.
For more from both days, you can read RegenWA’s written debrief, standby for their release of other recordings, and of course listen to last week’s episodes.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 17 September 2025.
Title image by Alex Hawkins from Simple Ben Stories.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Beat Blitz by Sunny Fruit (sourced from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to this brief bonus extra to episode 279, which featured a very special panel conversation from the recent Regenerating Food Systems conference.
Now you might ask, why would anyone who wasn’t at the conference want to hear my MC’s introduction to it? Well, if you’re interested in some of the story of the conference, the movement in Western Australia generally, RegenWA in particular, including its moving roots, some of the rest of what became an incredible week of events in WA, from Government House, through the conference, to Grounded Festival and more - and maybe even some of the story of how I came to be connected to all this at about the same time RegenWA started – then here’s the short version for you. All of six or seven minutes. With the Governor of WA and his wife, former Ministers, current MPs, and 300 others filling the room at Perth Stadium last month.
Recorded 17 September 2025.
Title slide: Introducing the conference, with the Governor of WA in the front row (from the film by Alex Hawkins of Simple Ben Stories).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Music by Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Ever since the extraordinary week of events here in Western Australia last month, from a reception at Government House for former podcast guests and current West Australians of the Year, Di and Ian Haggerty, through to the 2-day Regenerating Food Systems conference at Perth Stadium, and on to the 2-day Grounded Festival down south near Bridgetown, and plenty more besides, I’ve been wondering what might hold up to share with you here on the podcast.
In short, I’ve got a few things you might enjoy hearing. Starting today, with the very first panel of the Regenerating Food Systems conference (with thanks to the team at RegenWA).
It features five special guests: prominent writer, broadcaster, chef turned farmer, and founder of Grounded Festival Matthew Evans, globally renowned plant and soil health educator and consultant Joel Williams, nationally recognised Indigenous leader and regenerative land manager Oral McGuire, award-winning farmer and RegenWA Chair Stuart McAlpine, and soil and gut microbiome researcher Dr Craig Liddicoat (yes, mighty men's business - mighty women's business closed the day).
I start by asking each of our guests for fire starters, and it takes off from there.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 17 September 2025.
Title image: AJ, Matthew, Joel, Oral, Stuart and Craig (pic: Paolo Sulit).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Find more:
RegenWA’s written debrief on the conference.
The WA Governor's introduction of the conference.
Oral McGuire's appearance on SBS News.
Music:
Citadel by Ardie Son (sourced from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to one final special offering for you to round out the series recorded at Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet Nation, in current day northern Montana.
When the documentary film that culminated at Chief Mountain, Bring Them Home, was screened at the Regenerate Conference in Denver last year, while on its award-winning international film festival circuit, co-director Daniel Glick and producer Melissa Grumhaus from Thunderheart Films were there.
The film charts the decades-long story leading to the return of buffalo to the wild for the first time in over a century. And it’s narrated by Oscar-nominated Blackfeet woman, Lily Gladstone.
So in the emotion of the moment, I recorded the 25 minute Q&A with Daniel and Melissa on my phone, just for myself, and asked them afterwards if they’d be up for doing a podcast on this. Thankfully they were.
But when I listened back to the Q&A, it was all there. Succinct, in the moment, and profound – talking about the film’s story, and their own. I was able to ask a couple of the questions too, that more or less bookend it. So I checked with Melissa if she’d be happy if we just ran this, and thankfully she was.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 6 November 2024.
See photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Find more:
Film trailer, screenings & streaming.
The 18-minute short film directed by Daniel in 2016 that led to the feature film (which was also co-directed by Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan & Ivy MacDonald).
For more of the story, head to the 2-part podcast series produced on Blackfeet Country, episodes 276, Culture as Medicine, and 277, Chief Mountain.
Music:
Bring Them Home, by Foreshadow feat. Ksk'staak'iinna (Official Music Video).
Home Journey, by Semo, Ian Post (sourced on Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last week featured a very special on-location episode with Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet elder, and founder of the Piikani Lodge Health Institute, Long Time Charging Woman Kim Paul. That was our first day together, visiting some of the places Kim holds most dear on spectacular Blackfeet Country in current day northern Montana, all while sharing some breathtaking stories about her life and work.
We left off that episode hearing the story of how Piikani Lodge came to be, and the support that started to serendipitously kick in. Back at the house that night, Andrew Berger turned up. He’s the Director of Agriculture and Climate Adaptation Programs at Piikani Lodge.
Based in Baltimore, he’s a landscape architect who cut his teeth in New Mexico on water rights and planning, which fortuidously led him to Piikani Lodge in its relatively early days. And he’s found himself pivotal to the big vision Kim talked about last time, on their latest reacquired land, while he also works with that increasing number (almost half of them so far) of the landholders and farmers improving their land management and production.
So the next day, Kim and Andrew kindly offered to take us out to the sacred sentinel that is Chief Mountain. Which was also where the closing scenes to the new award-winning documentary I talked about last week, Bring Them Home, were filmed, as buffalo were returned to the wild for the first time in over a century.
So join me as I climb in with Andrew to hear how he’s seeing this country, the work of Piikani Lodge, and his role in it all. We’re to meet up with Kim at Chief Mountain. And the day goes on to culminate with an unforgettable wild encounter, while it starts with an heroic story, and more breaking news, straight out of the gate.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 11 July 2025.
Title image: Andrew, Kim & AJ by the Medicine Wheel (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes become a supporting listener below.
Btw, at the last location in this ep, it was Pearl Jam’s bassist.
Music:
Flight of the Inner Bird, by Yehezkel Raz feat. Sivan Talmor (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last week's episode featured a special on-location recording with Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet elder, and founder of the Piikani Lodge Health Institute, Long Time Charging Woman Kim Paul. Again, given it was two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way.
In this case, two parts presented themselves neatly. Part one was released earlier this week. And part two here extends from the big shifts Kim sees happening, through to the serendipitous and unlikely story of how Piikani Lodge came to be, along with an invitation to all.
Weaved through all that is a brilliant new program for youth, the place of animals, hunting meat in their culture, the huge Powwow, hopes for co-management of Glacier National Park, recovering Piikani names, more transformational tales, including a pivotal workshop with Robin Wall Kimmerer, the drive for the next infrastructure to leverage positive change, culture as (preventative) medicine, and visits to some of the places Kim holds most dear, here on spectacular Blackfeet Country in current day northern Montana.
If you’d prefer to listen to the whole episode straight, head to ‘Culture as Medicine: Long Time Charging Woman Kim Paul at Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet Nation’.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this. And thanks for listening.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 10 July 2025.
See some photos on the full episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
More on the campaign Mika Matters.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last week's episode featured a special on-location recording with Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet elder, and founder of the Piikani Lodge Health Institute, Long Time Charging Woman Kim Paul. Again, given it was two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way.
In this case, two parts presented themselves neatly. In fact, when producing the full episode, I had to stop after an hour and a bit to absorb all that had been shared to that point, especially the last 15 minutes of gripping story there (from which the title to part one here is drawn).
So, part one here extends from my intro (with music Into Thin Air by Hans Johnson), through to that story. Including breaking news of their latest reacquired land and the big vision unfolding there, the extraordinary regenerative agriculture resurgence across the Nation (including the return of the buffalo), broader food sovereignty and enterprise moves, compelling traditional diet research, Kim’s personal stories of her tribal naming and mysterious encounters, a bigger lens to bring to the troubles of today, and of course along the way, we were treated to the spectacular vistas and stories of this breathtaking part of the world in current day northern Montana.
If you’d prefer to listen to the whole episode straight, head to ‘Culture as Medicine: Long Time Charging Woman Kim Paul at Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet Nation’.
Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this, and stay tuned in a few days for part two.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 10 July 2025.
Title image: Kim sharing the gripping story towards the end of part one that gives it its title (pic: Olivia Cheng). (Yes, this was all so impromptu, the phone was the unintended recorder - though I did have my wireless lapel mic's to plug in when outside in the wind thankfully.)
See more photos on the full episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
More on the campaign Mika Matters.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Today, an extremely special episode. After we left the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative in Wyoming, but before we reached Paul Hawken back in California, there was one more stop we had to make. Or so we thought. For having made it to the Old Salt Festival (podcast about back in Montana last year), we met a special guest speaker there, Miisami Sapai yi Aki / Long Time Charging Woman, Kim Paul, an elder of Amskapi Piikani Blackfeet Nation.
Kim is founder and ED of Piikani Lodge Health Institute. I already knew about some of its brilliant work, having read Liz Carlisle’s profound book Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming. And then I’d seen the impressive Latrice Tatsey (who featured in Liz’s book) present at the Regenerate Conference in Denver last November, which was also where the extraordinary documentary film Bring Them Home, on the Blackfeet buffalo restoration, was screened.
Those resurgent Blackfeet stories had felt like they were constant accompaniment on our journey. So I’d lightly wondered if we might end up visiting them and their spectacular country in the far north of Montana (historically and essentially still including current day Glacier National Park). Alas, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. But then, Kim - this high school drop-out, now with multiple degrees, who carries the Siyeh Ksisk Staki creation bundle and pipes, and was transferred the rights to wear the traditional stand up warbonnet. We met after her presentation at the festival, and she warmly invited us to visit as they approached their Powwow in July.
We pick up our time together with Kim at the Nation’s latest reacquired land, where Piikani Lodge has a big dream unfolding.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 10 July 2025.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Mika Matters.
Music:
Into Thin Air, by Hans Johnson (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Tim Winton is regarded by many as the preeminent Australian writer of his generation. His awards could almost fill a book themselves now. And he’s come to Boorloo / Perth today to launch his first picture book in more than 20 years, and the first non-fiction picture book for children about Ningaloo reef, the world heritage treasure a thousand kilometres and some north of us here. It’s called Ningaloo: Australia’s Wild Wonder, spectacularly illustrated by award-winning Perth local Cindy Lane. And as it happens, it launches at the best and worst of times up at the reef.
Join me at the legendary local independent publisher Fremantle Press, for a chat with Tim about it all.
And if you happen to be in Perth ... ‘Ningaloo: Australia’s Wild Wonder’ will be launched in Perth tonight with the founder of the Telethon Kids Institute, former Australian of the Year, and Australian Living Treasure, epidemiologist Professor Fiona Stanley.
The book can be pre-ordered now, and will be in stores from the first week of October.
And if you happen to feel like hearing more of Tim and I in conversation, head to episode 162 on the extraordinary documentary about Ningaloo that Tim spearheaded a couple of years ago, and maybe even episode 17, way back in the beginning, just after the launch of the feature film adapted from his book Breath.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 24 September 2025.
Title image: the book cover (supplied).
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
This still feels like the funniest story told on the podcast over its eight and some years now. And right up there among the most moving too. I still laugh out loud when I think about the end of my yarn with Tyson Yunkaporta back in episode 70, when I asked him about his music story. And the emotions that surged in a touchstone moment just prior to that have been the subject of many a chat since. Funnily enough, I couldn’t actually remember that one followed the other. So here’s the last 15 minutes or so of my time with Tyson for episode 70 back in 2020.
Welcome to the 9th instalment of Vignettes from the Source, the new short form series featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years. Indeed, this one hits all three of those marks, and was front of mind when deciding to create this series.
Tyson belongs to the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York in far north Queensland, with community/cultural ties all over Australia. He is the author multiple books, including Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. He’s also a poet and artist carving traditional tools and weapons, processes that were central to writing the book.
If you’d like to hear or revisit this conversation in full, head to episode 70 – ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’ (there are a bunch of links in those show notes too, and a very special photo from this conversation on that episode website).
Right now, we’re in the thick of the unprecedented series of international events that have gravitated together between Perth, the wheatbelt and Bridgetown here in WA. I’ll look forward to sharing some of what happens with you all afterwards, especially for those who can’t get here. For now, I hope you enjoy revisiting this one with Tyson.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 13 August 2020, and released 14 September 2025.
Title image supplied.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
We’re just days away now from what’s been loosely dubbed ‘Regen Week’ over here in WA, an unprecedented series of international events that have gravitated together between Perth, the wheatbelt and Bridgetown. I’ll look forward to sharing some of what happens with you all afterwards, especially for those who can’t get here. Right now, though, on the back of last week’s episode focused on the centrepiece of the week, RegenWA’s major conference at Perth Stadium, it felt irresistible to release this excerpt in anticipation of the climax to the week – the first Grounded Festival in WA.
Welcome to the 8th instalment of Vignettes from the Source, the new short form series featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.
This vignette is drawn from the conversation I had with farmer, author and founder of Grounded, Matthew Evans, and his partner, farmer and teacher, Sadie Chrestman, just after the very first Grounded had been staged at their place, Fat Pig Farm, in Tasmania last December. We pick it up with Matthew a little over ten minutes in, before Sadie joins us five minutes later.
It was raw, fun, and so endearingly candid. Unforgettable, really. So, on the cusp of the next edition of the festival, here’s 15 minutes with Matthew and Sadie – followed by five minutes of extraordinary music alongside a story about how it played out at that first festival.
If you’d like to hear or revisit this conversation in full, head to episode 247 – ‘Celebrating Grounded Festival: Behind the scenes’ (there are a bunch of links in those show notes too, and a very special photo from this conversation on that episode website).
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 18 December 2024, and released 5 February 2025.
Title image sourced here.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
My Mother, The Mountain, by Claire Anne Taylor.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
It’s fitting that my first Aussie guest back home would be this bloke. Stuart McAlpine is a multiple award winning wheatbelt farmer over here in WA, who’s just been named as a finalist in the prestigious national Bob Hawke LandCare Award. I’ve long looked forward to having him on the podcast, having met him as part of the group that organised the first major RegenWA conference staged at Perth Stadium back in 2019 (it was my honour to be MC for that group of people). Six years on, we’re on the cusp of RegenWA’s second major conference (Regenerating Food Systems), back at Perth Stadium, and I couldn’t have said ‘yes, I’ll be home for this’ quick enough, when invited to be MC again.
This time around, the conference will feature two days not one, and a full week of satellite events have spontaneously gravitated to its orbit. And this time, RegenWA is running its conference having become an independent not for profit organisation, with Stuart as its inaugural Chair. He’s also been a paid subscriber of this podcast for nearly four years, so you can imagine how humbling that is.
Ideally, of course, we’d be at the farm. But given we’ve just got home from a big journey with the pod, and given the conference, satellite events and award announcement are just a couple of weeks away now, we thought we’d jump online for a quick yarn to help gear up for this potentially pivotal moment in time.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 2 September 2025.
Title image from RegenWA's website.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Upcoming events.
Music:
Against All Odds, by Tiko Tiko (sourced from Artlist).
Country Cousins, by Stuart McAlpine.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
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Thanks for your support!
After years of work led by traditional custodians, Murujuga on the north-west coast of Australia became a World Heritage listed site last month, with its ancient rock art recognised as a ‘masterpiece of human creative genius’.
You might remember our visit there, in the heat of December 2021, when I spoke with Clinton Walker, Ngarluma/Yindjibarndi man, Traditional Custodian of Murujuga, and CEO and Founder of the award-winning Ngurrangga Tours. I was actually only able to release the conversation in full for the first time in January this year. And while more than one million petroglyphs, some dating back about 40,000 years, should have meant the judgement was as near a shoe-in as possible, industry expansion plans were creating tension.
In the end, the Australian government managed to negotiate to have its cake and eat it too, achieving both World Heritage and industry expansion for the area. It’s a moment of undeniable and deserved celebration, and yet the tensions remain about the limits of protection World Heritage might afford.
Welcome to the 7th instalment of Vignettes from the Source, the short form series featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.
We pick up this 15 minute slice of the conversation with Clinton about seven minutes into the full episode. It forms a powerful snap shot of the place, why it is now World Heritage listed, what it means to the people there, and the uncertainly that remains.
If you’d like to hear or revisit this conversation in full, including Clinton’s brilliant story, head to episode 245 – ‘Cultural Economies at the Greatest Rock Art Gallery in the World’ (links in the show notes, and photos on the website of the original partial release for episode 109).
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded at Murujuga, 13 December 2021.
Title image: Clinton at Hearson’s Cove (pic: Anthony James).
Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Back on Earth Day in April 2024, we started our journey of the Americas with friend of the podcast, legendary best-selling author, Paul Hawken. It was just ahead of the release of his latest book, Carbon: The Book of Life. So we recorded a podcast in his incredible garden about it (along with some other life story stuff).
Later we thought it could be good to record a pod just walking and talking around the steeply sloped streets of his local neighbourhood, among the redwoods - see what this tallest of tree species had to say too. Alas, with both our travels at the time, we didn’t get to it. But having managed to return to northern California a few weeks ago, ahead of flying back to Australia, we did.
And as it happens, Paul’s next book is in full flow. Working title? 'Upstream: Why the climate movement failed and where to from here'. Given this is by the bloke who compiled best-selling volumes Drawdown and Regeneration, this seemed as good a place to start as any - after the redwoods introduce themselves. And after arriving at a powerful analogy for our times, we converge at the end on, well, the wisdom of Dolly Parton.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 26 July 2025.
Title slide photo by Olivia Cheng.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Upcoming events.
Music:
The River, by Peter Cavallo (sourced on Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
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Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the second and final part of this special episode from the Wind River Reservation with Jason Baldes, founder and ED of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, and VP of the InterTribal Buffalo Council.
The full episode was played more than most in its first week, but given it was a little over two hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way.
We pick it up here as we move through some hilarious and powerful encounters with the buffalo. From feeding Ruby the orphan buffalo and her little horse mate, to meeting a couple of big bulls, on to what ends up being an incredible period of time face to face with the herd.
As always, you can browse a list of chapters and navigate that way if you like.
If you've come here first, you might like to start with Part 1, released a couple of days ago. That'll give more context to the extraordinary story unfolding here. But this part stands alone pretty well too.
ICYMI, you can also catch our time on arrival at the Initiative in episode 268 (more photos on that web page too), where we were welcomed by two of the brilliant young staff there, Xavier Michael-Young (Seminole man bringing his economics, finance and cultural tourism expertise, having been drawn to Wind River by the buffalo), and Taylar Dawn Stagner (award-winning journalist, enrolled member of the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and an Eastern Shoshone descendant, and now the Initiative’s new Community Engagement Director).
Recorded 16 September 2025 at the Wind River Reservation, home of the Eastern Shoshone and Arapaho Nations, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in current day Wyoming.
Title image by Anthony James. For more behind the scenes, and to help keep the show on the road, become a supporting listener below.
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Last week's episode featured a special on-location recording with Jason Baldes, founder and ED of the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, and VP of the InterTribal Buffalo Council. It has drawn some wonderful responses since (thank you!). And again, given the episode was a little over two hours, I thought to release it in two parts this week for those of you who prefer to tune in that way. All the more because the conversation sort of evolved into two distinct parts naturally.
So welcome to Part 1, from where we first meet Jason at the Initiative's HQ, and prepare to head out into the field with the buffalo. We're straight out of the gates with the breaking news here of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe officially and overwhelmingly designating buffalo as wildlife again, with its myriad and profound restorative ramifications - on culture, health, justice, spirit, other wildlife, rivers, land, through to notions of ownership and property. And when the engines are cut about ten minutes in, the air stills and the conversation deepens.
As always, you can browse a list of chapters and navigate that way if you like.
I'll have Part 2 for you in a couple of days, from right amongst the buffalo with some hilarious and profound encounters, from feeding Ruby the orphan buffalo and her little horse mate, to passing by some big bulls, to what ends up being an incredible time face to face with the herd.
Recorded 16 September 2025 at the Wind River Reservation, home of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Nations, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in current day Wyoming.
Title image by Olivia Cheng.
For more behind the scenes, and to help keep the show on the road, become a supporting listener below.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to the Wind River Reservation, home of the Eastern Shoshone and Arapaho Nations. And, the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative (WRTBI), a tribally led non-profit founded in 2023, here at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in current day Wyoming. We left off part 1 of this series last week, as we met the Initiative’s founder, Jason Baldes, and prepared to head out on the plains, to meet the buffalo and hear their, and Jason’s, stories.
It was in the lead up to the Tribe’s Sundance just 2 years ago, that they sourced meat from their own buffalo, on their own land, for the first time in nearly 140 years. That’s all part of enacting a broader vision of buffalo living as wildlife (not livestock) once again, protected under Tribal law.
And this vision doesn’t stop at Wind River either. Jason is also VP of the InterTribal Buffalo Council – where 87 Tribes and growing are currently involved in efforts to restore the buffalo, and all that entails - from the re-acquisition of land, the return of rivers and other wildlife, along with the health, language and spirit of many Nations.
Join us in the side-by-side as we hear the brilliant story of what’s happening here, including how it came close to never happening. About half way in, we head over to feed the orphan buffalo Ruby, and hear about the old Shoshone grandmas, before ultimately arriving back at the herd for an incredible unexpected face to face encounter.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 16 June 2025.
You can hear Jason’s good friend, Pedro Calderon Dominguez, with the buffalo at American Prairie, for episode 220, Lakota woman Kelsey Scott for episode 222, and the series from the Osage Nation starting episode 261.
Title slide: AJ & Jason as our visit wound up (pic: Olivia Cheng)
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the Wind River Reservation, home of the Eastern Shoshone and Arapaho Nations, and the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative (WRTBI). That’s a tribally led non-profit founded in 2023, here at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in current day Wyoming. The Initiative, and its founder Jason Baldes, had been coming increasingly to my attention as we travelled the US, and with such unique and extraordinary aspects to the story, I was stoked we could meet up today.
We arrived as Jason and family were preparing for the summer’s Sundance, which reminded me of having read about how buffalo meat had been sourced for the tribe’s 2023 Sundance, from their own animals on their own land for the first time in nearly 140 years. And that’s just a hint of the momentous shifts happening here, as they enact a vision of buffalo living as wildlife once again, protected under Tribal law.
While Jason was making his way over to us, we got to meet some of the Initiative’s brilliant young staff, including Xavier Michael-Young and Taylar Dawn Stagner. They warmly welcomed us in, and were a treasure trove of passion, insight and vision. So our time with them forms this first part of our two part series from the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative.
In part two, we’ll head out to the buffalo with Jason. But right now, we meet Taylar, award-winning journalist, enrolled member of the Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and an Eastern Shoshone descendant, and now the Initiative’s new Community Engagement Director. And we meet Xavier, offering us the opportunity to delve ever deeper into the Initiative from the perspective of this young Seminole man, who brings his economics, finance and cultural tourism expertise, having been drawn to Wind River by the buffalo.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 16 June 2025.
Title slide: Xavier & Taylar heading to the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Professor Fred Provenza is the legendary behavioural ecologist and author who revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. But what really blew Fred away on his journey was what he talked about in this part of our conversation a few years ago, on the capacity of all beings to innately know and select the food and nutrition they need.
Welcome to the 6th edition of Vignettes from the Source, the new short-form series featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.
I initially went in to just grab the 14 minutes you’ll hear first. But when listening back, I couldn’t stop it running till another 10 minutes had ticked along – after I’d asked Fred how all his health findings relate to planetary health too.
And all this was prompted because it happened to come up in conversation yesterday, as I was sitting with another legendary former guest on this podcast, Paul Hawken, back here in California (where our American journey began, and where it’s now ending). And a listener from Pennsylvania also just contacted Fred about it. So I thought, why not bring it up again here too?
If you’d like to hear or revisit this conversation in full, head to episode 123 – ‘The Wisdom Body a paradigm change in animal, human and planetary health’ (there are a bunch of links in those show notes too, including to Fred’s masterful book, ‘Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom’).
There were actually two parts to episode 123, by the way. And there’s another unforgettable section in part 2. But that’s for another day.
For now, I hope you enjoy revisiting this one with Fred Provenza, a man who has come to shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 8 June 2022.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
This part of my conversation with regenerative agriculture legend, David Marsh, has stayed close since we recorded it at his place back in March 2024. In fact, when I first thought about launching the new series Vignettes from the Source, this passage was front of mind.
Welcome to the 5th Vignette in the series that features some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.
This ten minutes or so is full of such moments, moments that power David’s enormous legacy. It is part of what was, fittingly, the podcast’s bicentennial episode. And that happened to be recorded days after another prominent guest, gun writer and newish farmer Sam Vincent, said this about an experience of seeing David speak: ‘it was like the king had entered the room’.
Then after the episode with David was released, I was humbled to see a listener had written this review: ‘I’ve listened to thousands of hours of podcasts and never commented. I feel compelled to say this was simply beautiful.’
The land was singing too.
If you’d like to hear or revisit this conversation in full, head to episode 200 – ‘The Land Does It For You’ (with a few photos on that web page too).
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 10 March 2024.
Title slide: David & AJ ahead of this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the original episode web page linked above, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last week’s episode from the ancient Great House of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, left something out. Before my guest Dana Scott and I headed back to the car, we went back towards the entrance and plaza, because I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about how Dana’s path has arrived at a transformational restorative justice approach to education, how that evolved from our time in Guatemala together, and how being at Chaco relates to it all.
We quipped at the outset that this could be another podcast, and really, it was. I hope you enjoy it.
And for those of you who enjoyed the conversation with Jenny Finn at Springhouse Community School, it was Dana, through Dwanna (who you’ll hear about here) who introduced us.
I’ll share more photos of our visit to Chaco, in addition to those appearing on the website, with paid subscribers today also, with great thanks for making all this possible.
Recorded 15 April 2025.
Title slide photo by Olivia Cheng.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Chauen, Angel Salazar (sourced from Artlist).
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
This episode was made during one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. It happened in a place that’s been called the most important site in the world. Lynne Kelly said that, co-author of Songlines, and my guest in the extremely popular episode 92. She said it in a call with filmmaker Anna Sofaer and I a little after this was recorded. Anna has made a series of extraordinary films about this place, as founder of The Solstice Project.
The place is called Chaco Canyon, located in the heart of New Mexico, and at the centre of the ancient Chacoan civilisation. This World Heritage site is still so little known, and at a time when its mysteries, prophesies and conscious transformations are so relevant to us today.
So this episode comes to you from the centrepiece of the centrepiece – the greatest of the Great Houses, Pueblo Bonito. I’m joined there by Dana Scott, a great old mate from our time in Guatemala a quarter of a century ago, highly accomplished educator and counsellor, and newish subscriber to the podcast too. Some of you may remember reading about him in a piece on Substack while we were in Philadelphia last year, as the Scott family invited us along to their old haunt. We’d been spending time with them in their current haunt in Baltimore, when it was revealed we had a long-standing mutual calling to Chaco Canyon. So we resolved to meet there.
Dana and I peeled off in golden twilight one evening to share some of our transformational experience of the place. This includes some deeply personal and crazily uncanny links. But as we say in the conversation, there is so much to this story and place. So if you, like us, find yourself fascinated with it all, do go to the sources we talk about - the tribes, researchers and of course what lies beyond.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 15 April 2025. (Intro recorded in the car at camp)
Title slide: the view during this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
For those keen to hear about Old Salt Festival, I’ve sent an initial missive with photos to paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack, and I’ll have more for you all soon.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Footage of Mercedes Sosa singing Cuand
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
In last week’s episode with Dr Jann Hayman, winding up our series from the Osage Nation, I mentioned we’d just been on a tour of their astounding Greenhouse. The woman who kindly gave us that tour, Dawn Wormington, had been recruited for the job by the Osage. And in this brief bonus to the Osage series, we hear from Dawn about the unexpected, unintended gift that keeps on giving, out of the filming of Killers of the Flower Moon.
If you happen to have come to the Osage series here first, you can hear my brief scene-setting introductory episode to the series with filmmaker Nicol Ragland here, my conversation with Chief Standing Bear here, and subsequent conversation with Dr Jann Hayman here (recommended in sequence).
I’ll share more photos of our visit, in addition to those appearing on the website, with paid subscribers this week.
Recorded 4 April 2025.
Title slide: AJ & Dawn astride the pineapples in the greenhouse (pic: Nicol Ragland).
See more photos on the website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Music by Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Dr. Jann Hayman is Secretary of Natural Resources for the Osage Nation. We’ve just come from a tour of their astounding greenhouse, after having had a powerful conversation with Chief Standing Bear. Jann’s graciously welcomed filmmaker Nicol Ragland and I for a chat at her office, amidst her busy end of the week. Both Chief and Nicol sing Jann’s praises loudly. Nicol calls her a powerhouse. And when she won the award from which I drew the title image for this episode, the presenter said ‘if you haven’t been to Pawhuska to see [their] facilities, you need to!’
This continues our special series from Osage Nation HQ, in Pawhuska Oklahoma. Today, we speak with Jann about how the Nation is going about its masterful resurgence, on the ground. Jann was Director of Environment and Natural Resources when the Tribe mobilised much of its recent food sovereignty and related achievements. In the wake of that, she was asked onto Chief’s Cabinet.
This conversation picks up from Chief’s, as we flesh out the realities of those achievements, including their remarkable land re-acquisition and food sovereignty measures, related buffalo restoration, broader wildlife too, language innovation, trust-based funding, reconnecting with the elders, and building a systemic movement. We hear, too, how all this is impacting people, and what big ideas are next. And again, this is a very frank, inspiring, and fun yarn. With a deeply moving story and piece of music, played by Jann, to close.
If you happen to have come to the Osage series here first, you can hear my chat with Chief Standing Bear last week, and the brief scene-setting episode with Nicol, the week prior (if you’re not familiar with the back story on this one, it’s worth ducking back to listen to that 13 minutes with Nicol first).
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 4 April 2025. (Intro recorded at Greens Lake, Utah)
Title slide source.
More photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
As introduced last week, we’re about to have a very special meeting with Chief Standing Bear of the Osage Nation. The family and I made our way with friend and filmmaker Nicol Ragland to Osage HQ in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. How the Osage survived being marched to these lands by the US government in the 19th century, and ongoing brutality in the 20th, is a scene set in last week’s episode (if you’re not familiar with that back story, it’s worth ducking back to listen to that brief 13 minute episode first).
We pick up the Osage story in the 21st century, where they’re mapping a masterful resurgence including the rare reclamation of land, the powerful realisation of food sovereignty, the innovative return of language, and so much more.
As mentioned in the introductory episode last week, some of you might recognise the Osage Nation from the recent Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon. The Chief’s early reference to their extraordinary Academy Awards live performance relates to that.
Join me with Chief Standing Bear, for a fascinating, frank, fun and generous insight into the Osage Nation, his role, and their resurgence.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 4 April 2025. (Intro recorded by the Colorado River at camp in Castle Valley, Utah.)
Title slide: The Chief, from the Nation’s website.
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the launch of a very special series from a very special visit to the Osage Nation. Some of you might recognise the Osage Nation from the recent Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon (have a look at this awesome live performance at the Oscars). Or from the book that was based on, by David Grann. Or indeed, from the podcast series, In Trust. They’ve all done a heck of a job bringing to new light and new generations what was done to the Osage back in 1920s Oklahoma. In this series, we follow the story of the Osage in the 2020s – mapping a masterful resurgence of land reclamation, food sovereignty, the return of language, and so much more.
Our privilege was to share time with Chief Standing Bear, and later the Nation’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Dr Jann Hayman. The stories and work of both are captivating, moving and often astounding.
To set the scene for us first is the person who introduced us, friend and filmmaker Nicol Ragland. You might remember Nicol as director of the very first Farmers Footprint film, among many others. Or episode 80 on this podcast. Well, four years since that podcast, after we moved on from last week’s incredible story in Texas, we met Nicol for the first time in person at her home in Oklahoma City. And after we’d visited the Osage together, we headed out to Nicol’s farm. That’s its own story. For this episode though, I asked if she’d share some of the story of her unlikely return to her roots in Oklahoma, and how only then did she start to learn of its deeper stories.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 8 April 2025.
Title slide: Nicol at her farm (pic: Anthony James).
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Beginning & ending music by Jeremiah Johnson.
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
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Christopher Brown is a celebrated science-fiction writer and decorated lawyer (and once co-hosted a punk rock radio show). His newest book, however, is described as a ‘genre-defying work of nature writing, literary nonfiction, and memoir that explores what happens when nature and the city intersect … [challenging] our assumptions of nature itself.’ It’s called A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys and other Wild Places.
The blurb of its publisher Timber Press, an imprint of Hachette, puts it like this:
'During the real estate crash of the late 2000s, Christopher Brown purchased an empty lot in an industrial section of Austin, Texas. The property—a brownfield site bisected with an abandoned petroleum pipeline and littered with concrete debris and landfill trash—was an unlikely site for a home. Along with his son, Brown had explored similar empty lots around Austin, “ruined” spaces once used for agriculture and industry awaiting their redevelopment as Austin became a 21st century boom town.
'He discovered them to be teeming with natural activity, and embarked on a twenty-year project to live in and document such spaces. There, in our most damaged landscapes, he witnessed the remarkable resilience of wild nature, learned how easy it is to bring back the wild in our own backyards, and discovered that, by working to heal the wounds we have made on the Earth, we can also heal ourselves. Beautifully written and philosophically hard-hitting, [it] offers a new lens on human disruption and nature, offering a sense of hope among the edgelands.'
As soon as I received this book, I immediately invited Chris onto the podcast. And to my delight, he and his family were happy to have us drop by. So while our wives worked and kids played, Chris and I explored what he’s called their ‘little house on the petroleum prairie’, and just how he navigated a serendipitous path, through personal and global travails, to aportal of healing, regeneration and more than a little magic.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 30 March 2025.
Title slide: Chris holds a tell-tale sign, in front of the house you can barely discern from all the lush greenery there now (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Silhouettes, by Muted (sourced from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music c
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It was difficult trying to choose the opening quote for this week's episode. My guest Lorenzo Washington articulated a handful of beautiful passages. So I thought I'd put the 'short list', as it were, together here. Let's call it a preview of ep.259, The Jefferson Street Sound: Preserving Nashville's Soul with Lorenzo Washington. One of my favourites.
Title slide: Lorenzo and I outside the Museum after our chat (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
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Nashville's musical legacy extends far beyond the mainstream country narrative. Tucked away in North Nashville, the Jefferson Street Sound Museum stands as a testament to the rich cultural heritage of jazz, soul, and rhythm and blues that thrived from the 1940s to the 70s. Founded and curated by Lorenzo Washington, this museum isn't just a collection of artifacts – it's a living, breathing continuation of the African American music and community that shaped generations.
We’re talking about artists like Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, James Brown, Little Richard, Peggy Gaines, Jimmy Church, Jackie Shane, Ike and Tina Turner and many more, when they played the many clubs that lined Jefferson Street, alongside the local enterprises that provided ‘everything you need to sustain a community’. That was until around half a century ago, when the construction of Interstate 40 displaced more than a thousand black residents, destroyed a business and cultural district on Jefferson Street that was thriving against the odds, and cut the neighbourhood in half.
Lorenzo tells of how ‘black museums start in the kitchen’ – literally – and his was no different. What he thought might last a year or so has since grown to consume his entire house, win multiple awards, and spawn a new generation of folk taking up the mantle. The brilliant short film on PBS, Exit 207, opens with Lorenzo walking astride young leader Carlos Partee, founder of the Nashville Black Market, just part of the cultural and economic resurgence on and around Jefferson Street. And Lorenzo’s open mic nights, recording studio, community events, conversations with legends and more, continue not just to preserve a legacy, but to create one.
I met up with this dapper, funny, humble and still sprightly 82-year-old at the Museum, as he was gearing up for the Annual Gala on April 3 - in honor of what is now Lorenzo Washington Day in Nashville TN. We end up with a song made for him at the Museum by Nashville’s Queen of the Blues, Marion James.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 11 March 2025.
Title slide: Lorenzo outside the Museum after our chat (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Watch Out, by Chaun Davis (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenN
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Today we continue the new series Vignettes from the Source, featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.
This one is from almost five years ago, with regenerative agriculture legend, the founder of RCS Australia, Dr Terry McCosker. Terry and his family have become dear friends over those five years, but this conversation was our first at any length. And still stands as one of the most popular, and profound, on this podcast.
I commonly look at grabbing 10 or 15 minutes for these vignettes, but on this occasion, Terry and I took off straight out of the gates, and never looked back. I found the first half hour and a bit so moving, fundamental to his pioneering life, and universal in relevance. And then I just had to patch in the last few minutes together too, featuring Terry’s story about his choice of music.
If you’d like to hear or revisit the rest of this conversation, head to episode 67 – ‘Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia: Dr Terry McCosker on life, death and learning true power’. Along with the bonus episode. And also episode 136 (with photos on that web page) with Terry alongside brilliant wife Pam, at their home after the 30th anniversary RCS Australia international convergence eventually took place in 2022.
I hope you enjoy revisiting this one with Terry McCosker.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 30 July 2020 (with an intro recorded today).
Title slide: AJ & Terry after the Convergence event in 2022.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
The first and last tune you hear is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
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Springhouse Community School has been called ‘the most dynamic and promising experiment in education and community building’. It’s a K12 bilingual school, with adult programs, community networks, and even a print shop (that’s a glorious story in itself). It also works with a participatory budgeting and pricing model, and incorporates things like restorative justice and land regeneration practices.
The school describes itself as an ‘intergenerational, vitality-centred learning community in Southwest Virginia where we are fundamentally transforming the purpose and practice of education.’ Its vision? A world where all life thrives. Sounds obvious when you say it. What else would education be for? It all stems from Meg Wheatley’s premise that ‘Life pushes back against a story that excludes it’.
Jenny Finn is the school’s somewhat unwitting founder and Executive Director, having never imagined she’d be living here or doing this. And it’s a wonder she’s even with us at all. But her death-defying tale has ultimately shaped her journey. And as we talk about it, some uncanny parallels in our lives feed a consistently amazing and often hilarious chat – in her car! Yep, we tried in her office, as it was too windy outside, but school life was in full volume as an evening event commenced. Which by the way, featured student and other presentations on Economics and the Cosmos. Now that sounds like an education.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 27 February 2025.
See photos on the episode website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener - all via the links below.
Music:
Circle of Life, by Letra (sourced on Artlist).
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Jenny singing an Irish tune.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last week’s episode on-location with a ‘community juggernaut’ restoration project in South Carolina drew some wonderful responses – like ‘I felt like I was right there’, ‘Giving me goose bumps’, ‘The future retrospective documentary idea is brilliant’, and ‘This kicks ass’! So here’s a 5 minute bonus to lift your spirits a little more.
It starts as we were winding up, but with mic’s left running, capturing a stunning moment by an old oak tree standing on the original plantation house grounds. (And theAngel Oak Joel mentions, is an even older oak he just filmed a story for, to assist in its preservation and celebration.)
Then another stunning moment, when Schuyler Clogston drifted by, and the tale emerged of her serendipitous encounter with the Project. And finally, some more context to the amazing regeneration at play, and the out-take at the end of the main episode.
If you’ve come here first, you can tune into that main episode 256 with Joel Caldwell and Dr Blake Scott, ‘The Marsh Appreciation & Restoration Society for Happiness’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes as usual, along with transcript, and a bunch of photos on that episode website, with more for paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded September 2024.
Title image: the oak tree we pass (pic: Anthony James).
Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
What to do when your prominent low-lying coastal city starts to go underwater, nigh on weekly on average, already? Charleston, South Carolina, is served by The Post and Courier. It runs a series called the Rising Waters Lab. And a couple of months ago, it featured a story titled, ‘The Southeast’s first urban eco-corridor aims to connect fragmented habitats in Charleston’. Welcome to The MARSH Project.
What started as a personal effort among three friends to revitalise and steward an acre of marsh on the peninsula, has grown into a community-powered juggernaut. And not just to save a city from flooding, or even just to restore its incredible lands and waters. But the complex history of this place means the healing runs deep.
One of the founders of the project is Joel Caldwell (also in episode 227 talking about his new film for Patagonia, for which he went on to win the Short Film Award at the prestigious Santa Barbara International Film Festival). It was Judith Schwartz who said we might enjoy meeting Joel - and the two Blakes, Dr Blake Scott and Blake Suárez. When I looked them up online and saw the project they’d instigated was called the Marsh Appreciation and Restoration Society for Happiness, I knew these were guys I did want to meet.
We arrived in Charleston on a day when the community was to gather at the marsh for a clean-up event. We hear from them too, as I wander alongside Joel and Dr Blake to learn about how this juggernaut is happening.
Recorded Sept. 2024.
Title slide: Joel & Dr Blake (pic: AJ). See more pics on the website & more still for paid subscribers.
Music:
Galaxy Groove, by Yarin Primak (from Artlist)
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Today we continue the new series Vignettes from the Source, featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative moments my guests have shared over the years. This one is from a little over three years ago. It’s the first and last six minutes or so, bridged together, of my very first conversation with Kate Chaney. Kate was to become, just a few months later, the 7th new community independent – and WA's first – elected to Australia’s parliament at the 2022 election.
Well, on Saturday week, 3 May, Australia’s next federal election takes place, and Kate is standing again, amongst all able incumbents, and many others. We heard on last week’s episode of the continued burgeoning community independents movement, along with the escalated personal assaults, generally negative and often false campaigning being waged against them. Kate was mentioned as being particularly targeted.
It made me think of this first time Kate and I spoke, by Galup/Lake Monger in Perth, partly for the start, where she described her gut-churning time deciding whether she’d step up into this maelstrom in response to the community’s call. And partly for the end, where I asked about her vision for the country, and if she had a rallying cry of sorts for us. Her answer feels all the more poignant given how many more independents are standing this time. I’ve also never forgotten Kate’s story behind her music choice (I offer my suggestion too).
Hear the full conversation in episode 110, after Kate won in episode 121, and most recently on some of the enormous outcomes during her term in episode 203.
Get involved everywhere via the Community Independents Project.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Originally recorded 22 February 2022.
Music:
Intro by Jeremiah Johnson.
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
In the landscape of Australian politics, something remarkable is brewing from the ground up. The community independents movement has evolved from a rural experiment to a nationwide phenomenon, reinvigorating democracy in my home country. At its heart, this movement isn’t about profile candidates, big funding or big media, but communities deciding they deserve better representation, and doing something about it.
The results have been striking. Seven new community independents were elected in 2022, comprising a cross bench of 16 in total (with 3 new Greens elected then too). Incumbent independents increased their margins. Other so-called safe seats around the country became a contest too, as the major party vote continued to decline to around 33% each, now level with minor parties and independents.
Leading into the upcoming election on the 3rd of May, there are now 37 community independent candidates running, in every state and territory. These campaigns are engaging people of all persuasions in a way not seen for generations, if ever.
Just before the last election I spoke with Cathy McGowan, Australia’s first female independent MP back in 2013. She wrote a book in 2020 about her experience, and it rapidly catalysed a movement. Back then, she talked of the potential to transform politics in this country by 2030. So leading into this 2025 election, I was keen to know how she was seeing things, as the movement continues to rapidly grow, and so too do major party efforts to marginalise it.
Cathy was kind enough to join me for as frank and positive a conversation as ever, and with some surprising takes on things, even risking sounding like a heretic, she says. We start with a brief exchange on what we’re seeing in the US right now.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 7 April 2025.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Indi sings for Cathy, with Sal Kimber.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
A couple of episodes ago, I launched a new series on the podcast, Vignettes from the Source, to feature some of the unforgettable moments my guests have shared over the years. Continuing the series today then, is a passage of 7 or 8 minutes from my conversation with award winning filmmaker and photographer, Nicol Ragland. Longer term listeners might remember, Nicol was behind the very first Farmer’s Footprint film, among many others.
Well, four years since she was on the podcast, we met in person for the first time at her home in Oklahoma City last week. Approaching that visit, the family and I listened to the episode I recorded with Nicol those years ago, and I remembered what a brilliant conversationalist she is. I was reminded of her belief in ‘the adjacent possible’. And when I asked my final question of Nicol, ‘what elders have been important for her and how?’, her answer was really something. It had to be the next vignette.
If you’re inspired to listen to more, or revisit the rest of this conversation, tune into episode 80.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 16 March 2021.
Title slide: Nicol Ragland (supplied).
See more photos on the original episode web page linked above, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the fourth and final part of this special on-location recording with the 'land whisperer', Patrick MacManaway, in Burlington, Vermont.
ICYMI, the full episode was played more than most in its early days, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way. There have been plenty of takers too, so I'm glad this suited a bunch of you.
We pick it up here where part 3 ended, at the Farmhouse that replaced McDonald's downtown. Then we head back to Patrick's garden, for some of the punchline, you might say - as he shares some of the most impactful stories from his work around the world. These include a look at the changing face of how academia is treating the work, and how the world at large is opening to it also.
And we close with news of his next collaboration with Australian legend in regenerative agriculture, Terry McCosker. Before Patrick, himself, takes us out with a tune.
Title image by Anthony James. For more behind the scenes, and to help keep the show on the road, become a supporting listener by one or more of the options below.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
The RegenNarration playlist (music chosen by my guests).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to part 3 of this special on-location recording with the 'land whisperer', Patrick MacManaway, in Burlington, Vermont.
ICYMI, the full episode was played more than most in its early days, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way. There have been plenty of takers too, so I'm glad this suited a bunch of you.
We pick it up here where part 2 ended, as we wound up at the public stone circle in Burlington, Vermont, to head to a woodland labyrinth that again Patrick was pivotal in creating.
En route, we hear some of the great story of what's happening on the land on which the labyrinth has been set up. And on arrival, we venture into the woods, exploring the relevance and power of the labyrinth over time, and how else we can restore our internal compass in the world.
Then we head out for one more stop - a surprise venture to the farm-to-table enterprise that replaced McDonald's downtown.
The fourth and final part with Patrick, back in the garden at his place for a grand finale of sorts, will be out in a couple of days.
Title image by Anthony James. For more behind the scenes, and to help keep the show on the road, become a supporting listener by one or more of the options below.
Thanks for listening.
Music:
The RegenNarration playlist (music chosen by my guests).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
We've forgotten the earth is alive, and it's killing us. That was one of the title prospects my podcast host served up for today's release. Another was 'reimagining our connection to land'. They're fair hints at part 2 of this special on-location recording with the 'land whisperer', Patrick MacManaway.
ICYMI, the full episode was played more than most in its early days, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way. I'm glad to see that, over the last couple of days, many of you were.
So we resume here where part 1 left off, arriving at the public stone circle that Patrick was pivotal in creating, by Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont's most populous city. It's formally called the Burlington Earth Clock. Though you'll hear far beyond the formal presentation here.
We pick it up with Patrick's own ancestral and other connections to this part of the world, going on to clarify the legend of the sanctioning of his father's work by the Pope. Then we delve into the millennia-long story of stone circles, engage with this one together, and hear about some of the changes that have happened since it was created. And we close with the extraordinary experience that shifted Patrick's focus to agriculture, before heading to our next stop. That'll be part 3, out in a couple of days.
Title image by Anthony James. For more behind the scenes, and to help keep the show on the road, become a supporting listener below.
Find more:
To hear about the transformative insight gained at Stonehenge by Lynne Kelly, co-author of Songlines, and my guest on the third most played episode on this podcast, tune into ep.92.
Lynne's co-author and curator of the incredible Songlines exhibition, Aboriginal / Irish woman Margo Neale, was on next for ep.93.
Music:
The RegenNarration playlist (music chosen by my guests).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last week's episode featured a special on-location recording with the land whisperer, Patrick MacManaway. It has been played more than most in its first week, but given it was a little over two and a half hours in length, I also wanted to offer it in distinct parts, for those of you who prefer to listen to it that way.
Perhaps 40 minutes or so fits into your usual listening window better, or maybe that length will just give you time to digest the conversation. If you've already listened to the whole thing (thank you!), maybe this will make it easier to revisit certain parts. As always, feel free to let me know.
This is Part 1 then, from my intro through to when we head to the stone circle. We start in Patrick's garden, before jumping in the car. Roadworks sent us in all kinds of directions, so we got some time to talk about how this Scot ended up in Vermont, how he came to be doing what he's doing, and what that is exactly. There are some profound ancestral connections, including the growing legend around his father's healing hands on the battle field. And others that led to us meeting on this day.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Hours, by Patrick Sebag (from Artlist).
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
The RegenNarration playlist (music chosen by my guests).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to a very special and unique episode. Previous guest on this podcast, Terry McCosker, co-founded RCS Australia 35 years ago. Fellow Australian legend and podcast guest, Charles Massy, is best-selling author of Call of the Reed Warbler. In that book he wrote, “When I look back over the rise of regenerative agriculture in Australia, I see at the forefront Terry and Pam McCosker and their RCS organisation. Today it remains a world leader in the field.” In light of that, I titled the first episode with Terry ‘Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia’.
Well, as I got to know Terry better over the years, I started to hear more and more about a bloke named Patrick MacManaway, who Terry had been working with since 2010. And Charles later shared with me his ‘missing chapter’ from Reed Warbler, the one deemed a little too ‘edgy’ to include at the time. Patrick features significantly in that chapter, along with some now famous stories of his father.
So as the years went by, I became increasingly interested in learning about the man alongside the man behind the movement. All the more, knowing that Patrick’s extraordinary influence is far from limited to Australia. Born in Scotland to pioneering parents, when Patrick realised he shared his father’s gifts, he also shared his medical training, before his calling deepened and spread around the UK, onto North America, and beyond.
I caught up with Patrick at his home near Burlington, Vermont, to wander through life stories, gardens, projects, and new endeavour with Terry.
Title slide by Anthony James.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener below.
Music:
Hours, by Patrick Sebag (from Artlist).
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Patrick MacManaway.
The RegenNarration playlist.
Find more:
Ep.136 - Terry & wife Pam.
Ep.92 - Songlines.
Ep.210 - Navajo land.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
The world isn't broken, it's trying to save you. That's where this one starts. But first, a couple of announcements. One, the launch of a new series on the podcast called Vignettes from the Source. And two, 5x New York Times best-selling author and great friend of the podcast, Paul Hawken, has his extraordinary new book, Carbon: The Book of Life, out now on pre-sale (with a few copies for paid subscribers). He’s also launching and chatting about the book at a few events in California next week.
Leading off the new series then, is what I’ve found to be an unforgettable last part of my conversation with Paul about the book last year, when we were bathed in sunshine in his home garden back in California. Listening back to it though, it could just as well have been recorded today. You’ll see what I mean.
So today features the last half hour or so of our conversation. In the first part, we talk about the new book, some profoundly wise words on the nature of story, and Paul's unflinching belief in people. Then the conversation shifts a gear, when I ask Paul about his experience with MLK Jr in Alabama as a teen, where he says in the book he witnessed a form of spirituality that really impacted him. I had been moving to wind up our conversation, but this last 15 minutes or so is straight from the source.
It all culminates in a five-minute ‘world premiere’ reading of the last passage of the new book. If all you do is listen to that …
Of course, if you’re inspired to listen to more, or to revisit the rest of this conversation, you’ll find it at episode 204. For now, I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Conversation recorded on 27 April 2024. Intro recorded today.
Title slide: Paul Hawken (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website of ep.204 linked above, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
Synergy, by TURPAC; One Love, by Roy Young; Circle of Life, by Letra (all sourced on Artlist).
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
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Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
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Welcome to a special 250th episode of the podcast! Are we on the cusp of a revolution in the nutritional content of our food? One that could change everything? Dan Kittredge thinks so. And he’s about to launch his next global effort to that end.
When you get a chance to speak with the man who’s been called the global steward of nutrient density in food, the man who developed the very term ‘nutrient density’, you don’t necessarily expect it to go as big and broad as this conversation did. But then maybe should I have.
Dan Kittredge is living one heck of a life, and as founder of the Bionutrient Food Association, goes as far as to say they're on the cusp of achieving their mission - that a revolution in the nutritional content of our food could happen within the next five years. It will be driven by farmers being rewarded for producing quality food, and set in tow enormous benefits for human and planetary health – from the physical to the meta-physical, and back again.
Indeed, this has been the nature of Dan’s journey, wandering from his roots with pioneering organic farming parents, across all sorts of intellectual and spiritual disciplines, experiencing the limitations of each, before arriving at an epiphany.
Now he’s increasingly invited to engage with communities all around the world. And this month he launches a new program to spur the vision along. Those of us who won’t get to attend the program will get a chance to hear how it goes too, at the next major RegenWA Conference in Perth in September.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 14 February 2025.
Music:
Dan singing.
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Together Road, by Paper Planes (from Artlist).
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Find more:
My conversation with Fred Provenza.
And with Manchan Magan, igniting some of my ancestral roots.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
‘School of Rock’ meets ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Damon Gameau, director of award-winning, chart-topping documentary films 2040, and That Sugar Film, takes eight kids on the ultimate school excursion: a road trip across Europe to challenge powerful leaders and find solutions to our greatest challenges. That’s how the bill reads for Damon’s new feature documentary film, Future Council.
The group’s mission was to take the conversation from the streets, into the boardrooms of some of the world’s largest polluters and most influential companies. Astoundingly, it resulted in the children forming a ‘Future Council’ to advise and influence those companies.
It also resulted in a transformative personal story for Damon. One of the most popular guests on this podcast, and a former award-winning actor, Damon had hit a self-described ‘swamp of sadness’. But as this film emerged, so did he. Some of this story isn’t quite ready for public consumption. But some of it, you’ll hear here.
Along with some wonderful behind the scenes stuff, moments of revealing tension in the film, the challenge to even get it released, what else is going to happen as the film is released globally this year, and some amazing early reactions - including being invited to screen it at the UN.
We talk soon after that took place, which also happened to coincide with the screening of the Kachana Station story on Australian Story late last year (now nearing 1m views). So we start with that. And we close with a rousing tune from Future Council’s soundtrack.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 4 November 2024.
Title slide: The Future Council with Damon Gameau.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
We are the Kids, by Bunny Racket.
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Circle of Life, by Letra (from Artlist).
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. We'd love you to join us.
Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits, on Patreon or the new Substack.
Or donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.
While you can also visit The RegenNarration shop. Come to an event. And please do share, rate and review the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Last month I had the honour of being a guest on the podcast of the legendary independent US media outlet Mongabay. It was a unique conversation, with US-born host Mike DiGirolamo based in Sydney, and me over here in the Americas, talking about some highlights from the seven months me and the family spent travelling across the USA last year, and relating it back to the seven years we’d travelled around Australia with the podcast before that.
Mike produced a unique patch up too, interspersing our conversation with enlightening editorial additions, and some material from a past episode that was wonderful to hear again. Mongabay kindly invited me to release the episode on The RegenNarration too, so here it is, in full - a fascinating 'reverse' cross-continental exchange for the moment at hand.
You’ll hear some highlights from last year’s US journey, including more personal stories behind the journey, more detail on the hope we derived from listening to people on the ground in that election year, and the exchange I had with Allan Savory in Colorado. And all while Mike and I were inspiring thoughts in each other from our respective experiences as we went.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded mid-December 2024.
Title slide: Mike DiGirolamo.
For more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Find more:
Hear more on the Haggerty’s early engagement with First Nations & how this is playing out on the farm now.
Ep.102 with Bruno Dann on Nyul Nyul Country.
The new Substack.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to a new year and new series of The RegenNarration! You might remember me talking last year with prominent author, documentary maker and farmer at Fat Pig Farm, Matthew Evans, in the lead up to the new festival he’s founded back home in Australia, called GROUNDED: the Food and Soil Festival. Well, that festival happened in early December, and a couple of weeks later I got back online with Matthew to talk about what happened, how it happened, and if it might happen again.
And hearing how his partner Sadie’s initial reaction to the festival was something like ‘wtf?’ only made me happier that she had accepted my invitation too. Aside from the fact that I’ve wanted to talk to her in her own right on this podcast for ages. (I don’t know that Matthew and Sadie have been on many podcasts together, so maybe I can even claim an exclusive!)
This conversation felt a little different. You'll hear this couple’s customary candour, humour and insight, but also an acute dose of exhaustion and elation. And it ends fittingly, in that sense, with a moving moment and tune from the festival.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 18 December 2024.
Title slide: Sadie & Matthew (sourced here).
See more photos on the episode website, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:
My Mother, The Mountain, by Claire Anne Taylor.
Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:
The event with Charles Massy & the Pollocks that became ep.16. (Ep.20 features John Hewson with friend, and subscriber, James Tonson hosting.)
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Time to take a punt this year! I've just launched a Substack. Essentially, after 25 years in international and community development, and nearly a decade creating TheRegenNarration podcast, I began to feel something missing – the stories between the stories. The ones that don’t get on the podcast. And the ones that connect it all up - the themes, the people, the places.
I started to wonder if writing some of these stories would be fun and useful. All the more after hearing Rebecca Solnit affirm how vital they continue to be in shaping our sense of reality, agency and possibility (out of the LA fires). So here’s a little introduction to the what, why and how of it. Including how subscriptions will work through the Substack, alongside Patreon and Buzzsprout.
You can also read about it on my launch post on Substack. Where you can also find my first article – a sort of foundation piece - out yesterday, from the ancient Mayan cities in northern Guatemala. All will be embedded with a little latent love of photography, and some tunes from time to time. Putting thesocial back in media.
So if you fancy some of that alongside your podcast, you can subscribe on Substack here - free or paid. I hope you’ll join me there!
And standby for the new series of The RegenNarration podcast next week.
For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener or Substack subscriber via the links below.
Recorded 29 January 2025 in Antigua, Guatemala.
Title slide: AJ recording this episode (pic: Olivia Cheng).
With thanks to you early Substack subscribers, and of course you enduring Patreon and Substack subscribers, and other donating supporters. None of this could happen without you.
Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Clinton Walker is a Ngarluma/Yindjibarndi man and Traditional Custodian of Murujuga (or Burrup Peninsula), on the north-west coast of Australia. You might recall my conversations with archaeologist Peter Veth and the co-authors of Songlines, Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale. They all related back to this place – where the Songlines start, as Clinton puts it. So as my family and I headed south from the Kimberley at the end of 2021, Clinton and I met up to record a yarn for the Clean State podcast. That was a shorter snappier format. But on this particular hot summer morning, with so much at stake here right now, and so much to appreciate about what he’s up to, Clinton and I settled in for an extended chat. Most of it became ep.109, still in the top 20 most listened to on this podcast. But today, for the first time, is our conversation in full.
Murujuga houses the largest rock art collection in the world – around one million petroglyphs, some dating back about 40,000 years. The World Heritage nomination for this place is a shoe-in, unless it’s jeopardised by current industry expansion plans. All this remains in play today, including the alternate vision Clinton puts forward, as a former technician with a mining company here, who now runs a highly successful business called Ngurrangga Tours.
Part of this episode was originally released as the last of the Clean State podcast. You can access the old Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page (below).
For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded 13 December 2021.
Title slide: Clinton Walker (from his website). For more photos by AJ, head here.
With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Jess Beckerling was Campaign Director of the WA Forest Alliance (WAFA) when we had this conversation (she’s currently put all aside to stand at the 2025 WA state election). Jess is a highly respected figure in the southern reaches of Western Australia, by both those who would traditionally have prioritised conservation, and those who might not have. I spoke with Jess back in July 2021 for the Clean State podcast. At the time, WAFA was seizing the opportunity it sensed to finally end native forest logging in WA.
With the comprehensive and poetically conceived Forests for Life Plan in hand, WAFA had been showing how we can stop bleeding finances, forests, farmlands and communities, and back in the growing suite of ecologically and economically beneficial industries. Come September, just two months after our conversation, the WA government agreed – and in an Australian first announced the end of native forest logging in WA. That end arrived at the start of 2024.
This is our conversation in full for the first time (previously having been restricted to a shorter episode on Clean State, and an excerpt of that on The RegenNarration). Then I’ve patched in Jess’s media statement from Parliament House on the dramatic day of the government’s announcement (a few minutes long), along with some of her comments.
Part of this episode was originally released as episode 8 of a series of 9 episodes for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of WA. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
The Clean State Plan is on the episode web page below.
For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded 13.7.2021 & outside WA Parliament on 8.9.2021.
Title slide: Jess Beckerling (supplied).
With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:
A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper, sourced from the Free Music Archive.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
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- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Simon Wallwork and Cindy Stevens live with their three kids on a farm in Corrigin, in WA’s wheatbelt. In 2019 they joined a group of other producers to found AgZero2030, an agriculture-led movement progressing positive action on climate. Their goal? That agriculture achieves net zero emissions by 2030, and the drawdown of emissions after that. In other words, that agriculture go from being a key contributor to global warming and its increasingly catastrophic effects, to being a key contributor to reversing it, and regenerating ecosystems and economies everywhere. And they’re finding a way to connect with people and politics across the board, including First Nations knowledge and enterprise, to achieve it.
There was a bit of wind about on this day, but we took cover among the trees, grappled with mic changes, and got through mostly unscathed! Which was just as well, as this turned out to be a very personal conversation about the origins of AgZero2030, and a prescient one through to the present day, with an uncanny exchange on the trajectory of insurance in a warming world.
This episode was originally released as episode seven of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page below.
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded at Kings Park, Perth / Boorloo on 11 March 2021.
Title slide: Simon & Cindy (supplied).
With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:Eden is Lost, by
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
A brief but profoundly beautiful bonus episode of previously unreleased material with Maria Novac. Maria was a single mum with a family who had unexpectedly found herself in need of social housing, and landed in a neglected hot box. A chance encounter resulted in her becoming one of the social housing recipients whose life was transformed by Stephen King and the Australian Insulation Foundation.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode 242 with Stephen King: ‘The Insulation Revolution: The ‘simple’ social enterprise model that inspired a state’.
To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
Title slide: Stephen King and Maria Novak as they appeared in an article on this story (pic: Steve Grant, supplied).
And for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Stephen King is the founder, CEO and Head Installer of the Australian Insulation Foundation of WA (AIFWA). While working in his insulation business, Stephen found social housing tenants were desperately in need of insulation, but had no means of getting it. So he set up a charity, added a little premium to his main service, and provided housing insulation for social housing tenants free of charge.
One such resident is Maria Novac – a single mum with a family who unexpectedly found herself in need of social housing, and landed in a neglected hot box. Maria can’t thank Stephen enough for the difference it’s made to their lives. And they’re not alone. And while the flow on benefits are enormous, from health to climate to education and more, perhaps the greatest benefit is what it shows is possible if government were to back in a plan to retrofit all 45,000 social houses in WA in this way. Maria was kind enough to host Stephen and I at her place for this conversation.
Note: the last reference to AIFWA online that I can find is in 2023, and the website is currently not live. This episode is still aired here due the value of this particular story, the at least seven years of work the non-profit did, and the successful model it demonstrates.
This episode was originally released as the sixth of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of WA. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to WA, so we resolved to re-release them here.
To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page below (where you can also find a five-minute bonus episode of previously unreleased material from this conversation, if you didn't catch it in your podcast feed).
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded November 2020.
Title slide: Stephen King (supplied).
With thanks to the CCWA, auspicing organisation fo
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Dale Tilbrook is a much-loved native food specialist, educator, and passionate Aboriginal tourism advocate. Like a lot of Australia at the time of this recording, Dale was immersed in a delayed NAIDOC Week, during COVID, celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. She also continues to work towards a big vision for First Nations people, and WA as a whole.
This vision is reflected in a joint proposal (linked on the episode web page) made at the time by Clean State WA and the influential WAITOC – the Western Australian Indigenous Tourism Operators Council. Dale’s seen WAITOC generate a litany of outstanding success stories in Aboriginal tourism, and at times with very few resources. The potential is huge, she says, with the right support and investment, to empower Aboriginal communities with all sorts of flow-on benefits - and at a time when WA, and the rest of the world – need it most.
Today, a special extended edition of the episode that originally aired on the Clean State podcast. I was limited to 30 minutes back then. Today, the full 45 minutes I couldn’t help but let play out when I visited Dale at her Maalinup Aboriginal Gallery.
This episode was originally released as part of a series I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of WA. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page.
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded November 2020.
Title slide: Dale Tilbrook (supplied).
With thanks to CCWA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Today, a brief bonus featuring material from my conversation with Shannon Leigh that never saw the light of day, partly due to the wind that blew in, and partly due to Clean State’s mandate for shorter episodes. But it’s worth the listen, with reference to one of Australia’s much loved satirical shows on ‘nation-building’, Utopia.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Shannon Leigh, ‘World’s Best Place for Active Transport, with Streets for People co-founder Shannon Leigh’.
To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
Title slide: The shared path with the First Nations stone figure talked about in the main episode by the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan (pic: Anthony James).
And for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
- Become a paid subscriber on Buzzsprout.
- Visit The RegenNarration shop.
- And please keep sharing, rating and reviewing the podcast with friends.
Thanks for your support!
Shannon Leigh is co-founder and Director of Streets for People, and previously an award-winning urban and transport planner at the Department of Transport and later Curtin University. Investment in active transport is one of the most livelihood-rich, climate-friendly measures available. And given cost blow-outs in public health, climate related damage, and car dominated infrastructure, it’s another vital transition more of us are after – especially in the wake of the tripling of cycling in Perth since COVID-19.
On that alone, WA’s former Auditor General, Colin Murphy, said that “It is hard to think of an activity with more benefits than cycling, for cyclists and for the wider community.” So to talk more about an active transport vision for WA, Shannon takes us to one of her favourite shared pathways by the Swan River.
This episode was originally released as part of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
To hear the rest of the Clean State series, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page (where you can also find a four minute bonus episode of previously unreleased material from this conversation, if you didn't catch it in your podcast feed).
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded in October 2020.
Title slide: Shannon Leigh by the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan for this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
With thanks to the Conservation Council of WA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.
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You might recognise Dr Vanessa Rauland from the renowned ABC TV series Fight for Planet A. Vanessa’s the co-founder with Alexander Karan of ClimateClever, one of a growing number of WA social enterprises that have been realising some of the enormous opportunities in our energy transition. When I spoke with Vanessa for this podcast, a few years ago, the ClimateClever team had nearly doubled in the months prior (even during COVID-19), working with an increasing number of schools, their communities and then businesses, to help them reduce emissions, save money and up-skill the next generation around regenerative living.
Vanessa’s long-dedicated her days to addressing climate change and increasing awareness about the vast benefits of living in such a way. And in the wake of the extraordinary youth-led global climate strikes, it’s arguably fitting that schools would take a lead role in the energy and related transitions we so urgently need. For this conversation, Vanessa takes us to one of the WA schools doing just that.
This episode was originally released as part of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
To hear the rest of this special series of Clean State episodes, and more stories of regeneration from around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page.
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded in October 2020.
Title slide: Vanessa and AJ.
With thanks to the Conservation Council of WA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:Eden is Lost, by
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Professor Gary Kendrick’s great love is the WA coastline and its seagrasses. Gary and colleagues have been at the forefront of seagrass restoration and the blue carbon movement more broadly. And with such a massive extent of coastline featuring globally significant carbon stores, world heritage sites, and deep community and cultural knowledge, the potential for WA – and beyond - is enormous. Gary takes us to one of his favourite parts of WA, to share a little of this spectacular story.
This episode was originally released as ‘Blue Carbon, Conservation Economies & the Great Seagrass Restoration, with Professor Gary Kendrick’.
It was part of a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
To hear the rest of this special series of Clean State episodes, and more stories of regeneration around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Recorded in one of Gary’s favourite parts of WA, in September 2020.
Title slide: Gary Kendrick (pic: OzFish).
With thanks to the Conservation Council of WA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
Music:Eden is Lost, by Selfless Orchestra.
Find more:The seagrass restoration being done by Gary and colleagues.
The Wirriya Jalyanu (Seagrass) Festival at Shark Bay.
A video of Gary from 2017 talking more about the story and value of seagrass.
Listen to another extraordinary story of seagrass restoration from the south of WA on ep82 of The RegenNarration.
And you can find the Clean State Plan (in full and in summary) towards the bottom of the
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- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
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A brief bonus featuring part of my conversation with Chantal Caruso that never saw the light of day, due to Clean State’s mandate for shorter episodes.
A poignant moment occurred at the launch of The Clean State Plan, with a group of First Nations people there expressing concern at the impending renewables revolution. It raised an important question - how do we transition energy systems without repeating colonial extractive patterns? And moreover, without unwittingly hampering the regenerative work they, farmers and others of the land are also pioneering?
Then we talk about the low-cost, exponential positive impacts of First Nations radio, and one of Chantal’s favourite stories, stemming from her childhood.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Chantal Caruso, ep237 ‘Introducing The Clean State Stories, with former director Chantal Caruso.’
To hear the rest of The Clean State Stories series, and learn more about the sorts of things talked about here, be sure to follow The RegenNarration podcast.
And for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
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- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
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As introduced last week, today launches a special festive season series of the Clean State Stories. This was a series of nine episodes I produced a few years ago for the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, the podcast and its host non-profit are no more. But the series of episodes featured such brilliant guests and stories, that are still so very relevant, and not just to West Australians, so we resolved to re-release them here.
The opening episode features highly respected former Director of Clean State WA, Chantal Caruso. Chantal was also the lead author of the Clean State Plan, outlining how to create hundreds of thousands of livelihoods for people in energy, agriculture, building, transport, tourism, and the care economy. The vison was to house and employ everyone, avert multiple catastrophes, and transition to a regenerative, fair and prosperous society.
And the plan highlighted a stack of brilliant stories from around WA of people already going about achieving that vision, also highlighting the enormous opportunities that await.
You can access the Clean State Plan, and its brilliantly formatted Summary, towards the bottom of the episode web page (where you can also find a 7 minute bonus episode of previously unreleased material from this conversation, if you didn't catch it in your podcast feed).
Recorded in one of Chantal’s favourite parts of WA, in September 2020.
Title slide: Chantal on-location (pic: Anthony James).
With thanks to the Conservation Council of WA, auspicing organisation for Clean State WA, for permission to re-release this series.
This episode was originally released as ‘Launching the Clean State Jobs Plan: A conversation with lead author Chantal Caruso’.
To hear the rest of this series, and more stories of regeneration around WA, Australia and the world, follow The RegenNarration wherever podcasts are found, or on the website.
And for more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:Eden is Lost, by local artists Selfless Orchestra.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
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A brief new year's greeting from Guatemala, to herald a special festive season series of short episodes.
Around four years ago, some of you might remember I produced a series of nine episodes for an organisation called Clean State WA. That became the Clean State podcast, dedicated to regenerative transitions in my home state of Western Australia. Sadly, that organisation is no more, but the series of episodes produced featured such brilliant guests and stories that we resolved to find a way to keep them alive in the record.
Their premise is so related to The RegenNarration podcast – it’s why I was asked to produce them of course – sharing a vision, narrative shift, and a plan of action, grounded in stuff that’s already happening. In that sense, their relevance remains, these few years on, and not just to West Australians. So I hope you’ll enjoy the listen to these half hour stories on-location across WA, wherever you are.
Title slide: Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Guatemala, where I recorded this.
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Welcome to the customary package of highlights from another brilliant array of guests throughout 2024, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country heard along the way – this time across two continents, 49 episodes and 78 guests, from all walks of life. Listening to it all together in one place last night was just incredible. I hope you enjoy it too.
You’ll hear a little from me first, with a short summary of the year in review, along with a snapshot of where we are right now, some intent for next year, and an update on the Kachana hearing just concluded.
With enormous thanks to subscribers and other supporting listeners for making all this possible. And to everyone who sheltered, fed and generally cared for us throughout the year, around Australia and the States.
With enormous thanks also, to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here. And of course, to you, thanks for listening.
The track list for this episode, identifying the music and people, is found in the chapter markers. A transcript is also available (on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Title image: AJ in a personal highlight visit to Joshua Tree National Park (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Find more:To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you again in 2025!
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
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A few weeks ago I released a podcast marking the premiere of an episode of Australian Story that featured the incredible story of regeneration at the hands of the Henggeler family at Kachana Station. Many of you already know the story, from its popularity on this podcast. Well, that Australian Story has gone onto well over half a million views already. And no sooner had it gone out than I got the news that fellow legendary regenerative farmers in Western Australia, Dianne and Ian Haggerty, had been awarded the 2025 Australians of the Year for WA. Now they’re in the mix for the big one, the national Australian of the Year award.
You can let the Council know how happy you are about this, and what incredible national ambassadors Di and Ian would be as the Aussies of the Year next year, via the Australian of the Year awards website and social media outlets. When sharing, use the hashtags #AusoftheYear and #NaturalIntelligenceFarming, and maybe #SustainableFarming and #RegenerativeFarming.
Marking this moment, today we revisit episode 68: Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, food & communities. This was the first time I’d been out to their farm back in 2020. And listening back now was a reminder of its first impacts on me out there, which I speak about at the end, after I’d spent two days with them touring the farm and chatting back at the homestead. I also remembered my little mate, chirping in my ear from the get go.
I start with a few updated layers to the story and some thoughts from Di and Ian.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Original episode recorded on 17 & 18 July 2020.
Title slide: Di & Ian Haggerty with their award (Auspire - Australia Day Council WA)
See more photos on the original episode website linked above, and for more behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:Intro by
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
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On the morning of Wednesday the 27th of November, I got the news that the legendary Carol Sanford had died. You might remember the conversation I was privileged to share with her at the start of last year, for our 150th episode. Carol knew she was dying, so much was getting difficult or impossible for her, and even speaking was tough, as Motor-Neuron Disease (as we call it in Australia) was taking hold. Yet she was as sharp, generous and forthright as ever. Within minutes she was saying things that have stayed with me ever since, including the statement that’s become the sub-title to this episode. So today, a tribute to Carol, featuring the conversation we shared last year, and a few words I’ve recorded here today, at a place very close to my heart.
For those who didn’t catch that 150th episode, and may not know much about Carol, she’s been at the heart of what we might call the ‘regenerative paradigm’ for decades. I spent a while scrolling through her last posts on LinkedIn yesterday, and noted that she’d hosted her last Regenerative Business Summit just weeks ago. And poignantly echoing what’s been coming through The RegenNarration podcast in these weeks also, she had written:
“Citizens are less ideologically polarized than they think they are, and that misperception is greatest for the most politically engaged people. As a result the tendency is to work on fixing the polarization directly and work on issues more actively. What if the means we are going about change and agreement is only making it worse?”
So it seems like a good time to hear from Carol again. And I can tell you that she did finish her seventh book that she was writing at the time, called No More Gold Stars. Ironically, it went onto win one.
This episode has chapter markers & a transcript (available on most apps now too).
Conversation recorded 2 February 2023, with introduction recorded today.
Carol’s family also posted: ‘If you would like to participate in her transition over the next 49 days, she invited you to practice “phowa”, which can be found in Chapter 13 of the Tibetan Book of Living
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
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This week we’re back with Chloe Maxmin, for a debrief that has been eagerly awaited – by me and many of you, I know – on how the Dirtroad candidates went at the recent US elections, and where to from here.
For those who didn’t catch Chloe in episode 225 last month, from up at the farm in Maine, Chloe became the first Democrat ever to represent Maine House District 88, and the youngest member of the 129th Maine Legislature. Two years later, she’d become the youngest female state senator in Maine's history. And all on the back of engaging with her community directly and in ways that transcended the partisan politics so many of us have had enough of. Then, at still just 30 years of age, Chloe co-founded a non-profit that trains others in how to run for office in this way called Dirtroad Organizing.
In just 18 months, this resulted in 38 alumni running at the recent election. So, how did they go (including Lucia and Maria from episode 228), how did her partner (from episode 226), incumbent independent Bill Pluecker go, what does it all mean, and what comes next?
We talk about the spectrum of emotions since the election, the successes of the ‘Dirtroad candidates’, making sense of people voting for those candidates and Trump, whether there are bigger shifts taking place with the 2-party system, how much this was a gender election, whether the US is as divided as it’s said to be, opportunities for regenerative agriculture with the coming administration, issues with the integrity of the election, a burgeoning ‘Dirtroad media’, what comes next for Dirtroad Organizing, and of course music.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 22 November 2024.
Title slide: Chloe Maxmin.
For more from behind the scenes, become a supporting listener via the links below.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
Intro
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The Regenerate conference in Denver a couple of weeks ago was like no conference I’d experienced in the ‘regen ag’ / food systems space. Such a presence of next generations, women and varied cultures amongst the 500 attendees. And multiple moments of crazy serendipity. It also started the day after the US federal election. So the air was heavy with emotion and uncertainty, when Sarah Wentzel-Fisher, the ED of Quivira Coalition, the primary organising body, opened the conference in tears. It was a unique context to this gathering, a context that also couched some of the most extraordinary stories of regeneration you’re likely to hear in one place.
So, come the last snowed-in day of the conference, I pulled out the mic and recorded four short grabs of 15 to 20 minutes each. I wondered if I might chase more good folk down. I’d had such wonderful conversations with dozens of people. But in the end, this small sample of voices seemed to represent those conversations pretty well. While they were also each notable in some way, offering particular insight about the conference and its election context.
Each guest introduces themselves as we go:
- Anica Wong, Communications Director at Quivira.
- Shumaisa Khan, Carbon Ranch Initiative Manager at Quivira.
- Aria McLauchlan & Harley Cross from Land Core.
- Emma Ractliffe from the Agrarian Futures podcast.
Then we launch into where they’re from, their ancestry, brilliant regenerative work, conference reflections, how it might change what they do, and finally their raw reactions to the election result (and of course their favourite tunes). It resulted in some viscerally felt wisdom for this moment. I also offer a bit more on the conference and surrounding vibe at the start and end of the episode. With thanks to Quivira, HMI and AMA for kindly having me along.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 8 November 2024.
Title slide (counter-clockwise): Anica, Shumaisa, Emma, Aria & Harley.
For more behi
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One of the most remarkable stories of regeneration on this podcast – still the second most listened to episode - featured in a landmark ABC TV special back home last week. One of Australia’s best journalists, Walkley-award winner Ben Cheshire, pulled together the story of Kachana Station, in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, for one of Australia’s most loved, influential and long-running TV series, Australian Story. Beautifully introduced by another legendary Aussie journo, Leigh Sales, within a few days of screening, it had already notched up over 120,000 views.
It was about a year ago when I first proposed to the show that they feature the Kachana Station story. Come January, I was happy to hear from producer Winsome Denyer with her interest. Then Ben called me in July to say they were going to do it. We managed to line up an interview for the show the following month when we were in NY state. And when it went to air last week, it landed a day ahead of yet another state tribunal hearing, set to cast judgement on the family’s appeal of a government order to shoot the donkeys they use as a key part of their regeneration efforts.
To mark the moment, I hope you enjoy revisiting one of this podcast's very special encounters in a truly incredible part of the world, for what happened to be the 100th episode back in 2021. I start with an update from last week’s hearing, and a reminder of a rare opportunity to catch Chris in person at the new Grounded Festival being staged in Tasmania next month.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded at Kachana Station throughout the week of 13 September 2021, with today’s introductory update recorded in Baltimore USA.
Title slide: from Australian Story.
See more photos on the original episode website linked above, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscribing member via the links below.
Music:The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
The tune accompanying the intro is by Jeremiah Johnson.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
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When we were in New York recently, I dropped by to visit Douglas Rushkoff at his Queens College office. For those who don’t recall Douglas from his previous times on this podcast, he’s a media professor, documentary-maker, host of the Team Human podcast, and best-selling author of 20 books - including the updated edition of Program or Be Programmed, out now, with particular additions around AI. There’s a launch party for that tonight if you happen to be in or near NY. Douglas is also one of the pioneering forces behind the internet. So when he tells me in this conversation that he’s starting to believe that the whole narrative of the internet is bull shit, it feels big.
We actually sat down over lunch initially, but hadn’t talked long before Douglas suggested we press record on it – that others might be interested in this too. So this one’s a little different. Going out on both our podcasts. Less interview, more conversation. On our respective lives and work, their latest surprising turns, magic, perspective and possibility, and yes, this journey of ours across the US this year. Including the light all that might shine on the US elections. It wound up feeling like a fun and profound tonic for the week ahead, and this high stakes time generally.
For those who’ve listened to this on Team Human already, you’ll find a tad lighter edit here, with a little more of the personal stuff left in, in case that’s of interest to you.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 9 October 2024 (inc. subway snippets; intro recorded in Baltimore).
Title slide: Douglas & AJ after recording (pic: Josh Chapdelaine).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscribing member via the links below.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
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This is a bonus extra to episode 228, featuring the Q&A that took place after the film screening of Rural Runners in the Shepherdstown Opera House, West Virginia. That award-winning film is the story of Chloe Maxmin’s incredible community-based electoral wins in Maine from episode 225. By Chloe’s side every step of the way was her best mate, and then campaign manager, Canyon Woodward, with Canyon’s parallel rise as a champion ultra-distance runner woven into the story. After this screening, Canyon hosted a conversation alongside three local candidates at the upcoming elections, who had each been through the program that Chloe and Canyon subsequently founded, called Dirtroad Organising.
You’ll hear from Lucia Valentine and Maria Russo (my 2 guests in the main episode), alongside Canyon, and the other local candidate in the room that day, Troy Miller. And we hear about some of the other candidates and their experiences across the country, too, including in the so-called ‘battleground’ states.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Lucia and Maria, ep228 ‘Grassroots Transformation in Rural West Virginia: Breaking the Political Mold with Lucia Valentine & Maria Russo’.
You’ll find a few links in the show notes as usual, along with transcripts, and a few photos on the episode web page, with more for subscribing members.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.
Recorded (on the phone in the audience!) 13 October 2024.
Title slide image: Maria Russo, Troy Miller, Lucia Valentine & Canyon Woodward (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscribing member via the links below.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
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Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free and freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them.
- Donate directly, avoiding all fees, by heading to the website.
- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
- Become a free or paid subscriber to the new Substack.
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“I've had several folks share with me that they are voting for Trump. But they're also voting for me.” That’s what Lucia Valentine told me when I spoke with her and another first-time candidate for the State of West Virginia at the coming elections, Maria Russo. This seemed to say so much about the coming elections here. For a start, that they’re far from as simplistic, binary and polarised as is often portrayed. And that what these women are up to is important, hopeful and possibly transformative.
I met Lucia and Maria at the Shepherdstown Opera House, for the last screening of Rural Runners on its latest national tour. That’s the award-winning film on the story of Chloe Maxmin’s incredible community-based electoral wins in Maine from episode 225. By Chloe’s side every step of the way was her best mate, and then campaign manager, Canyon Woodward, with Canyon’s parallel rise as a champion ultra-distance runner woven into the story. After this screening, Canyon hosted a conversation alongside three local candidates at the upcoming elections, who had each been through the program that Chloe and Canyon subsequently founded, called Dirtroad Organising. (Available in a bonus extra out soon.)
Lucia and Maria are two of those local candidates. And they’re both giving it a real shake in a rural area with a Republican ‘supermajority’, upending all sorts of assumptions as they go. And offering a pretty special finale here too.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 13 October 2024.
Title slide: Maria & Lucia (L-R, supplied).
See more photos on the website & for more from behind the scenes become a subscribing member via the links below.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, by guests. Find more:
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‘The biggest strides in hemp-crete construction are going down on one of the smallest reservations in America.’ That’s how the bill reads on Patagonia Film’s latest production, The Green Buffalo, launching online globally today. It’s referring to the Lower Sioux Indian Community, on the southern bank of the Minnesota River about 100 miles SW of Minneapolis. Turns out we had driven close by after leaving Kelsey Scott’s place on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, where we recorded episode 222. But it took getting to Charleston, South Carolina, to meet filmmaker Joel Caldwell, and learn of this ‘against all odds’ redemptive story – one that holds so much promise for the Lower Sioux, and the rest of us.
Joel is a photographer and writer hailing from rural Washington State. Having turned his hand to film making, he found himself transformed by five years following stories of regeneration, together with wife and project partner Hailey Wist. Then come 2024, he was blown away all over again by this story. It’s ended up becoming Joel’s first production with Patagonia, and as you’ll hear, has an incredibly poignant moment for me personally too.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 30 September 2024 (intro recorded in Baltimore).
Title slide: Danny Desjarlais, from the film (supplied).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscribing member via the links below.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:Trailer & how to host a screening of The Green Buffalo.
Joel on Substack.
Premiere live screening of The Green Buffalo is this Friday 25 O
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- Donate via PayPal.
- Become a paid subscriber to connect with your host, other listeners and exclusive benefits on Patreon. (NB: if you're using an iPhone, you can avoid Apple's new 30% app store charge by subscribing on your laptop or PC.)
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In some ways, the first 150 seconds of this excerpt from episode 226 with Bill Pluecker (alongside partner Chloe Maxmin), say everything that needs to be said about where politics is being done better in the US. They sum with the passage that became the lead-off quote in that episode. And they lead off this powerful last ten minutes or so of my conversation with Bill.
Bill, an independent representative from Maine, invites us into a world where the beauty of rural landscapes and the preservation of traditional ways of life are under threat. He shares his passion for sustaining the farming heritage of his community amidst cultural and political tensions brought on by external influences. His six-year journey, so far, as an independent politician in a predominantly conservative area paints a picture of dedication and authenticity, as he navigates the complex political landscape to bridge the gap between progressive values and pro-farmer policies. Bill's successful approach is a testament to the power of personal relationships in politics, where he strives to be more than just a soundbite, but a relatable figure who listens and acts for the benefit of his community.
We gain insights into the challenges and triumphs of running as an independent candidate without preferential voting systems. Bill provides a candid reflection on how he built trust and rapport with his constituents, emphasising the importance of human connection in an often de-humanised political arena. From preserving the cherished landscapes of Maine to ensuring the viability of local farms, Bill's narrative is a compelling look at the intersection of politics, identity, and community. We draw to a close with law that Chloe sponsored while in the Maine legislature to increase public participation in electoral primaries. And of course we talk music!
If you’ve come here first, you can tune into the full episode 226, ‘An Independent Farmer Wins in Maine: Transcending the ‘battleground’’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
Title slide image: Bill & Chloe at Begin Again Farm, near Warren, Maine (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
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The last 20 minutes or so of my conversation in episode 225 with Maine’s youngest ever female senator, Chloe Maxmin, has stayed with me since its release. And I’ve heard from a few of you saying similar. So in the interest of not letting it be too ephemeral with the passing podcast feed, this excerpt from that episode features that 20 minutes.
We unpack the inspiring and transformative journey behind "Dirt Road Revival," a book that has sparked change in rural organising across the U.S. Chloe shares her experience in turning years of voice memos into a powerful narrative that has not only resonated deeply with rural communities but also paved the way for Dirtroad Organizing, a non-profit dedicated to training and empowering rural candidates. Already, 38 alumni are running at this coming election.
We go on to compare notes on some of my impressions while travelling the country (is it so divided after all?), wonder if there might be a Dirtroad Media, and imagine this election and beyond.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the full episode 225, ‘Democracy on the Rise – in the US?’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
Title slide image: Chloe during the Dirtroad Organising program (pic: from their website).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
After recording with Bill and Chloe at Begin Again Farm for last week’s episode, Bill happened to drop word of an upcoming festival. And not just any festival, but the 48th annual running of the Common Ground Country Fair. It happened on 20-22 September this year, in the aptly named Unity, Maine, about 40 miles north of Bill and Chloe’s place. The Fair draws 60,000 people, features all kinds of programs, food and arts, and even makes money for its host the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) - the oldest and largest state organic association in the US (founded in 1971). That’s who Bill works for when he’s not farming himself, or representing constituents as an Independent in the Maine legislature.
So I had to ask him if he’d put the microphone back on and tell us about it.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episodes with Bill and Chloe respectively, ep226 ‘An Independent Farmer Wins in Maine: Transcending the ‘battleground’ with Bill Pluecker’. And ep225 ‘Democracy on the Rise – in the US? With Maine’s youngest ever female senator, Chloe Maxmin’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes as usual, along with transcripts, and a few photos on the episode websites, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
For more on the Fair, watch their excellent 5 minute video.
And for more on the Real Organic Conference, which ran the week after the Fair, back at Churchtown Dairy (which we visited in August), you can now watch videos of that on their website.
This episode has a transcript too.
Recorded 8 September 2024.
Title slide image: from the Fair’s website.
For more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
There’s a ‘so-called’ battle for rural America at the heart of the coming federal election. But what if it needn’t be a battle? And in fact, what if heart is what’s really at stake? People who love their places – places, by the way, that constitute 20% of the vote, and 97% of the land in this country. After the recent Vice-Presidential debate here in the US, featuring two men speaking to their roots in rural America, it is still reported that people are not seeing themselves well represented in either major party’s characterisations of them. Enter, this week’s story.
One of my favourite episodes on the podcast featured a woman I learned about back in Australia – Maine’s youngest ever female state senator, Chloe Maxmin. On arrival at Begin Again Farm, we also met her partner Bill Pluecker. And as he and Chloe showed us around the farm, we learned of his incredible journey as co-owner and farmer here, former manager of a successful Community Supported Agriculture program, and subject of a Maine state legislature love story. For that’s how Chloe and Bill met, when they were both elected to the House of Reps in 2018.
But while Chloe’s sights were on bringing the Democratic Party back to rural people, Bill stood as an Independent in his conservative district, and won - despite an electoral system not designed to enable that. Six years on, he’s still there and is now running for a fourth term.
Bill was also named in the Grist 50 for 2024.
Chapter markers & transcript.
Recorded 8 September 2024 (intro in Baltimore).
Bonus 5 minute episode on the Common Ground Fair.
Title slide: AJ & Bill (pic: Olivia Cheng).
For more behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.
Get tickets:Rural Runners screenings on US west coast & West Virginia.
Send us a text
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
This is one of my favourite conversations, and it starts a mini-series of sorts. I’ve had many listeners ask how things feel in this US election year. So, after months speaking with all kinds of people as we travelled through half the states of this country, throughout October, as the election approaches, I’ll offer what we’ve observed, in conversation with people doing some of the more outstanding things we’ve learned about along the way.
Today, meet Chloe Maxmin. Chloe left the farm she grew up on in Maine, as many young folk do, and headed for the city. But against frequent advice, she returned. And soon after, wondering why a kind community was voting for unkind politics, at age 26, she would stand for office and become the first Democrat ever to represent Maine House District 88, and the youngest member of the 129th Maine Legislature. Two years later, she’d become the youngest female state senator in Maine's history.
Chloe achieved all this with a community movement akin to what is transforming Australian politics right now. And we see a similar thing happening nationally here right now - notwithstanding the different electoral system. All helped along by organisations like the one Chloe was trained by, a book (Dirt Road Revival) and film (Rural Runners) about her experience, and now a non-profit Chloe has co-founded that trains yet more people, called Dirtroad Organizing. In short time, 38 alumni are now running at the coming election.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too).
Recorded 8 September 2024 at Begin Again Farm, Maine.
Title slide: Chloe just before our chat (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Get tickets:Rural Runners screenings on the US west coast next week.
Rural Runners screening in West Virginia.
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
This mid-week mail run comes to you from Savannah Georgia, as a hurricane nears the Florida coast and the storms begin here in advance of it. As usual with these brief episodes, I reply to text messages from listeners through the new link in our show notes. And this time I also announce the recent winners of the book giveaway.
That’s before sharing some concerning news for independent podcast creators like me, as Apple announces a controversial 30% premium on Patreon subscriptions made through their iOS app. I run through some implications, ways to avoid this charge, and other subscription options. Then we close with a quick look at what’s coming up.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 26 September 2024.
Title slide: The view from where this was recorded, by the rising marsh.
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
A new holistic farming festival is about to launch back home in Australia. Inspired by the famed Groundswell in the UK, GROUNDED! lands in beautiful southern Tasmania on the 4th and 5th of December - with a pre-festival event on the 3rd of December too. It’s billed as a cross between a world class conference, an informative field day and a cracking food festival. This is big news, and a huge undertaking by some great folk. So with the draft program released, it was time to chat about it with founder Matthew Evans.
Matthew is also a farmer, and TV producer, and was recently called ‘perhaps the best food writer in the world today’, in a Country Life UK review of his new book. No surprise to us, having had Matthew on the podcast a few times now. So this gave us a chance to talk briefly about the new book too. It’s called ‘MILK: The truth, the lies, and the unbelievable story of the original superfood’. And as it lands in a context where milk and dairy are often reported to have large climate and biodiversity loss footprints, I’m all ears. All the more given my 30-year avoidance of the stuff!
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 22 September 2024 (intro recorded outside by the wetland once the traffic had died down at night).
Title slide: Fat Pig Farm, the site of GROUNDED! (pic: from the festival website)
For more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:Get tickets to GROUNDED!
Listen to ep.209, Ultrawilding with Steve Mushin.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
After recording the main episode with Kelsey, we headed out for a very special tour through regenerating cultural and natural grasslands. We pick it up amongst the layered stories around the nearby Missouri River / Lake Oahe. That sets up a sense of the power in arriving at the family’s re-introduced Sundance grounds. Soon after, we witness Kelsey finding Indian grass back on the ranch for the first time, and achieving a long-held dream to see native grasses once again taller than she is. Found alongside the climate cooling, wildlife and nutritional benefits of these grasses, is a family’s deep re-connection in place, and a love story or two. And yet more layers have emerged in these stories since we met at the CREATE reunion last month in Montana.
Olivia and Yeshe are riding in the back for this one, so you’ll hear some kid’s play here and there, and a little cameo from Olivia with Kelsey, comparing herbal medicine notes across Native American and Chinese traditions.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Kelsey, ‘Resurgent Land, Culture & Food Systems on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.
Recorded 3 August 2024.
Title slide image: Kelsey’s dream realised – the return of native grasses once again taller than she is (pic: Anthony James).
Tune by Jeremiah Johnson.
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
Kelsey Scott is a 4th generation cow producer and 125th generation land steward at DX Ranch, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Kelsey is a Lakota woman, citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, Chief Strategy Officer for the Intertribal Agriculture Council, owner of a direct-to-consumer regenerative beef operation DX Beef, part of the education programs her family runs, a featured presence in the documentary film Common Ground, the first Native American student to give the student address at a commencement ceremony for South Dakota State University, and daughter of the first Native American to head the Farm Service Agency, and all of these roles have been to significant and growing effect.
There is an extraordinary regeneration of land, culture, and regional food systems underway in this country. Largely, it seems, flying under the radar - along with its empowering federal government support. The successes range from Kelsey’s own business, to global premiums being achieved for tribal enterprises, to a new Intertribal Food Business Centre being set up to model that food system regeneration – for the benefit of all. Meanwhile, Kelsey’s father Zach Ducheneaux continues to lead the Farm Service Agency, just landing his key legacy piece to date. And the flourishing return of native grasses on their land continues apace, as if singing a tune of gratitude for it all.
We first met Kelsey and family in Montana, at the CREATE program reunion featured in ep. 215. We talk about her unlikely presence and subsequent transformation in that program too. Then come full circle with her beautiful music story.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too).
Recorded 3 August 2024.
Tune into a tour of Kelsey's place here.
Title slide: Kelsey during our chat (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website & for more, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
The extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York is restoring dairy farming in a context where such farms are still closing around them. They are doing it with nature, family, food and festival at its heart. With organic and biodynamic methods, they are keeping cattle together in their families to amazing benefit, cultivating myriad farm products including medicinal plants, restoring a diverse landscape, designing beautiful buildings including a store onsite, and hosting an extensive set of gatherings at their spectacular barn venue. That’s where we’d attended an event the night before, with guest-of-honour and friend, the globally renowned author of Cows Save the Planet, Water in Plain Sight, and The Reindeer Chronicles, Judith Schwartz. It’ll also host the Real Organic Project conference on September 28, amongst Shakespeare productions and varied concert events.
Today we meet Churchtown’s herd and farm managers – Eric Vinson and Steffen Schneider respectively. I already knew a bit about Steffen - Co-Founder of the Institute for Mindful Agriculture, and Director Emeritus of Farm Operations at Hawthorne Valley Farm, up the road from Churchtown (having spent 30 years there). And Eric? Well, this 36 year old former journalism major used to run a successful event hire company in the city. But when covid hit, the realisation hit that he needed to live out something more meaningful. He landed at Churchtown, prepared to do anything to get a start. And two years on, he’s managing the herd, with a big vision, and an appetite for sharing it with people.
Eric’s our main guide here, as Steffen just had a short time with us, and Judy is my esteemed unofficial co-host.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 29 August 2024.
Title slide: Judith Schwartz, Olivia Cheng & Eric Vinson (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
Intro music by Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
The evening before we recorded the main episode with Pedro, we went out on the Plains to shepherd the buffalo to their next patch. This is a rare chance to hear one of the world’s most respected bison wranglers – and the animals themselves – at work. And there were some very special moments too, in this condensed 20-minute special extra to episode 220.
The wind can be mighty on the Plains, and as we went further towards the buffalo it did push the microphone I had on me at times. But given how rare and special this was, and that our voices, and at times the buffalo voices, can still be heard clearly enough, I’ve left in as much as I can of the good stuff, and decided to run with it. I hope you enjoy it. We pick it up as we drive out to the herd, already in awe at the scale and wonder of the Great Plains.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Pedro, ‘The Great Buffalo Restoration on the American Prairie’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
Recorded 29 July 2024.
Title slide image: Among the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Thanks for listening!
Send us a text
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
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Pedro Calderon-Dominguez is regarded as an extraordinary horseman. Though as fate would have it, his life took a series of unexpected turns, through wildlife ecology as the first to further Aldo’s Leopold’s work with black bears, into holistic management with some of the legends in Mexico and beyond, and ultimately into working with buffalo. Now he’s regarded by some as the world’s top bison wrangler. Though the man himself tells me the very best is a Native American bloke by the name of Junior. He’s never met him. He just keeps hearing about the stuff he does.
Pedro is currently based at an ambitious project called American Prairie, in the north of Montana, managing its bison restoration program on the Great Plains. We visited him and his brilliant wife Flora a few weeks ago, and were blown away by the presence of the bison again on this country, and Pedro’s subtle connection with them.
Mexican-born and raised, with his own indigenous origins and expert horse-handling pedigree, Pedro was recruited to American Prairie to play this key role in their mission to coordinate and leverage, across varied land tenures, the restoration of 3 million acres of essential grasslands. And it’s turning up some remarkable outcomes, including relationships with First Nations, and connections with the broader bison restoration work across the continent. At the same time, we’d also been hearing about the controversy and discontent amongst some locals feeling like big money from outside is supplanting family ranches. Save the Cowboy billboards line the highway as we approach.
So I was fascinated to learn more about the place, and Pedro’s place in the broader restoration of the buffalo, as the great ecological and cultural keystone species of the Great Plains.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript.
Recorded 30 July 2024 (intro recorded at Judith Schwartz’s home in Vermont).
Title slide: Pedro with the buffalo (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:For more on Pedro, tune into Back to the Land with Cody Spencer - World's Top Bison Wra
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
Send us a text
This week we’ve got some special news, and a mail run. That is, I reply to some of the text messages coming from you through the new link in our episode show notes. And I’m coming to you from the extraordinary Churchtown Dairy in New York, after attending an event last night at their amazing barn venue, with guest-of-honour, the globally renowned author and previous podcast guest, Judith Schwartz.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 29 August 2024.
Title slide: Yours truly in the farmhouse reading room where this was recorded (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:By Jeremiah Johnson.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Thanks for listening!
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
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Aldo Leopold has profoundly influenced the modern conservation and regeneration movement. He affected nearly every national conservation initiative in the US during the 1930s and 40s, and this year marks the 75th anniversary of his classic book A Sand County Almanac. Hard to believe now that it was rejected many times before being finally accepted just one week before his death. Since then, the book has been translated into at least fifteen languages and sold well over two million copies.
Today, we visit the land that inspired it, by the Wisconsin River, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Land that was clapped out and abandoned before he bought and regenerated it with his family – also converting the famous shack from what was a chook shed. Our family starts up the road at the Centre run by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, honourably marking the place of Aldo’s death.
Then we head out to the shack, where Aldo arrived at so many of his insights, and where I’m joined in conversation about the man, the regeneration happening here and around it, and the meaning of Aldo’s legacy today, by Dr Katie Ross - dear friend, very generous long-time podcast subscriber, former Acting-CEO of Soils for Life back in Australia (founded by our former Governor-General Michael Jefferies), and now returned local to America’s Dairyland in the State of Wisconsin. Though it was her first time to the shack too.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 14 August 2024 (intro recorded at dawn today at Chute Falls in Ontario, Canada).
Title slide: Aldo Leopold outside the shack (from the Foundation’s website).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Thanks for listening!
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Cole Mannix was featured in the New York Times a couple of months ago as part of a series called ‘Making It Work’, about ‘small-business owners striving to endure hard times’. The title read: Montana Has More Cows Than People. Why Are Locals Eating Beef From Brazil? The by-line followed: ‘Cole Mannix, [co-founder] of Old Salt Co-op, is trying to change local appetites and upend an industry controlled by multibillion-dollar meatpackers.’ And it seems local appetites are ready for it too – with both eaters and producers lining up for a taste of things, apparently just in need of a model that works.
It’s early days, but with a family legacy steeped in stewardship, some hard lessons from past efforts, and Cole’s personal journey from the ranch to theology and other revelations, the co-op is off to a rocking start. Literally. Soon after it formed in 2021, The Old Salt Outpost burger shop was set up in a famous old bar in downtown Helena. Though when I visited Cole, we started in the cruisier country vibes of the new restaurant and retail outlet across the street, called The Union. And we culminate back there with four of my favourite minutes ever on this podcast.
They happened to be prompted by Fred Provenza's presentation at the Old Salt Festival, a gathering to bring the whole lot together. So many essential aspects of systemic, regenerative change. Though as I was to learn, with one critical piece of the puzzle to come. And just the right sources of finance to make it happen.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).
Recorded 20 July 2024.
Title slide: Cole & AJ entering the Old Salt Outpost burger shop (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:Old Salt Co-op’s page on Steward
Hear Dan Miller from Steward on episode 161, Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.
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Allan Savory is a legend of regenerative agriculture - the ongoing force behind holistic management, a movement that has featured in so many stories on the podcast. Indeed, as we’ve travelled across the US / Turtle Island, we continue to hear such stories (including in last week's episode).
Longer-term listeners might remember my conversation with Allan on the podcast back in 2020. It still stands as amongst the most listened to, and my personal favourites. So as we neared Denver, Colorado, I reached out to Allan and the team at the Savory Institute. As it happens, Allan was about to front the next course at their nearby ranch. But by the time we were in the ‘hood, it was the week of Independence Day, and holiday movements had set in. So Allan, his wife Jody and I shared the intention to meet later in our journey.
Then, over the weekend just passed, my family and I were privileged to visit Kelsey Scott at the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota (standby for that special episode soon). Allan came to mind there too, with a story I share here from Kelsey’s husband Monte. It reminded me of Allan’s story at the end of our conversation, on the profound place intuition has held for him in his life. Then there was the music he chose, which I was able to include at the end.
So with all that in mind, and as Allan approaches his 89th birthday, I hope you enjoy revisiting one of this podcast's very special conversations.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript (available on most apps now too).
Intro recorded 6 August 2024. Conversation recorded 22 November 2020.
Title slide: Allan Savory (supplied).
See more photos and links on the website of the originally release, and for more from behind the scenes become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Scotland the Brave, by Eric M. Armour - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/AS220/AS220_1992_Compilation/14_Eric_M_Armour_-_Scotland_the_Brave
Sourced from the Free Music Archive under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The RegenNarration playlist
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In episode 164 with Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan (the infamous ‘armoured butts’ episode) we talked about the new ‘train the trainers’ program in agroecological systems thinking they’d created, called CREATE. This time, we visit them at home, as they gather for the first reunion of the program. Fifteen highly accomplished alumni from incredible and varied places gathered at Meagan’s beautiful regenerative ranch. And as the few days together wrapped up, I spoke with six of these people from across each of the three annual runnings of the course to date.
Those three runnings have taken place in some famous places in the US and the UK, including where our first guest today used to be an ambitious CEO for the family estate of Lady Diana. The 4th running of the course is about to start in Paradise Valley, at the foot of Yellowstone, where plans are also afoot to create a major new centre for this and other programs to flourish into the future.
So given this podcast explores the stories of human transformation that allow for the regeneration of everything, and how we can help other people along, I was fascinated to learn who these people are, why they were here, and what transformations they’ve experienced. And there was no shortage of them, from the course, and from this gathering itself.
Recorded 11-12 July 2024.
Title slide: Nicole Masters speaks to all (pic: AJ).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Guests:Garth Clark
Cody Spencer and his new podcast Back to the Land
Rebecca Baldwin-Kordick
Sérgio Nicolau and a short video that Sergio put together on Instagram of his journey
Francisco Alves (Herdade de S. Luís) and on Instagram
Nia Cowcher and Jamie’s Farm
And kudos to Lennan Bate and his new podcast,
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A number of you have said last week’s episode was one of the best, with legendary Bioneers founders Nina Simons and Kenny Ausubel. So in honour of that, and in case you missed it, or haven’t heard through to the end, this week’s release is an excerpt of the last 20 minutes or so of a very rare public conversation with the two of them together.
We pick it up where the conversation shifted gear, when I asked about the repeated uncanny happenings that have blessed their lives – including the magic tale of how Bioneers was saved (a story Nina doesn’t usually talk about in public).
Then we go on to talk about the power of work to come with Bioneers, what they’ve got to say to us next generations at this time, and what we can do to create and receive better media. Listen for the interplay of the thunder storm that rolled in towards the end too.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the full episode, ‘A Life’s Wisdom, Transformation & Romance, with legendary Bioneers founders Nina Simons & Kenny Ausubel’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
Title slide image: Kenny & Nina from the 2018 Bioneers Conference (pic: Genevieve Russell).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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This treasured and unique conversation is with the legendary founders of Bioneers, Nina Simons and Kenny Ausubel. Bioneers is a cultural phenomenon - an innovative nonprofit organization that has been highlighting breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet - for 34 years. What started as a somewhat reluctant conference in 1990 has become all sorts of other notable projects, including Bioneers Learning, and Bioneers radio and podcast. And there’s yet more to come.
Nina and Kenny also continue to be award-winning authors and filmmakers. You might even recognise Kenny from an appearance in Leonardo DiCaprio’s feature documentary The 11th Hour, for which he was also a central advisor. And when Nina’s new book landed on my desk last year, it doubled my hopes to meet them both when we reached their town. The book, ‘Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership’, is in many ways, the culmination of Nina’s life’s work to date. We hear more about this and other culminating and transformative moments in their lives here – from the ‘mystery’ illness that nearly claimed Kenny’s life as a teen (that Western medicine had no answer for), to Nina’s walk through a Puebloan garden soon after the couple met.
This was a very personal, at times riotous, and often revelatory wander through their life stories, with a literally thunderous finale. (Listen for the interplay of that storm towards the end!) It was an honour and joy to sit with them around the kitchen table of their beautiful adobe home in the mountains outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, for this rare public conversation with Nina and Kenny, together.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too).
Recorded 20 June 2024.
Title slide: Kenny, Nina & AJ (pic: Olivia Cheng).
To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find More:A favourite episode on the Bioneers podcast: Undam the Klamath! How Tribes Led the Largest River Restoration Project in US History.
Thanks for listening!
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Andrew Stone and I continued on for another 15 minutes off-record, but with the recorder still on. The conversation was so fascinating that I asked him if he was ok with it going out to you. So here’s a bonus 15 minutes with Andrew, where we went on to talk about his visit to Wendell Berry and their conversation on technology, some more uncanny connections, being part of the DMT studies in the ‘90s when psychedelics research restarted (and the story behind The Spirit Molecule on Netflix), and finally onto his work designing and building sustainable housing.
If you’ve come here first, tune into the main episode with Andrew, ‘Tech Innovator to Mystic Farmer: Andrew Stone’s Path’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with a transcript, and a few photos on the episode website, with more on Patreon for subscribing members.
Title slide image: Wendell Berry with Andrew’s ma Lib Stone (supplied).
Find more:The portrait film of Wendell Berry, Look & See.
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Andrew Stone has been dubbed the ‘solar mystic farmer’, as a pioneering solar passive designer/builder, former software developer of some of the commonplace apps today working alongside luminaries like Steve Jobs, regenerative farmer with treasured links to Wendell Berry and his family, key presence in the psychedelics resurgence, and a generally fascinating guy.
That was as much illustrated by the fact that when we met to record this episode, he was dressed to the nines as Robert Oppenheimer. You’ll hear why – and you can see him in that splendour on the title slide for this episode. We sat down amidst cottonwood seed falling like sun-drenched snow, magic adobe structures that appear to have spontaneously sprung out of the earth, and regenerating farmland his family has progressively acquired over the last 40 years, right in the heart of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I caught up with Andrew the day after he’d been helping others with adobe building and design, part of a power of work he does with community collectives like the People’s Energy Coop. There was much to talk about – about the past and future of all these technologies and techniques. All of which summed to an extremely entertaining and insightful conversation.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 16 June 2024.
Title slide: Andrew Stone (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find More:For more on the Puebloan peoples Andrew mentions, listen to the 6-part series on the history of the American south-west that Andrew’s wife Katie produced on The Children’s Hour, featured in episode 212.
And to hear James and Joyce Skeet, tune into Spirit Farm, on episode 210.
Thanks for listening!
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing the podcast with friends. It all helps. Thanks for your support!
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How does a local radio show run with and for children become a global phenomenon - with plenty of adult listeners too? All the more in an age of media disruption and decline, with the ongoing struggle of not only mainstream media models, but public and alternative ones too. In just six years, The Children’s Hour is approaching a listenership of one million people, heard on demand as a weekly podcast and on more than 160 stations in 6 countries. That stratospheric growth started with a pivot – when this local volunteer-run public radio show in Albuquerque, New Mexico, became a not-for-profit organisation with loftier ambitions.
Katie Stone became its Executive Director, having been a volunteer for 17 years before that. Today Katie shares this incredible story with us, as we take a seat in the show’s renewably powered studio, alongside 15 year old announcer Amadeus Menendez. Amadeus started with the show as it pivoted, and has grown with it since he was nine. And as the awards roll in, the next generation’s ambitions become loftier still.
Katie and Amadeus share how the show expanded globally, filling educational gaps and teaching media literacy and civics to children globally. Amadeus recounts his experiences engaging with experts like a NASA astronaut (in space!) and the treasurer of New Mexico. And together they emphasize the importance of positive, affirming messages and actionable responses to current events, ensuring that media educates and inspires without commercial influence, and across political divides.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 16 June 2024.
Title slide: Katie & Amadeus at Sun Spot Studio after our conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find More:6-part series on the history of the American south-west
ICKY: A Radio Musical
Deb Haaland on The Children’s Hour (with photo of Amadeus at 9 years of age)
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Our final episode last year was titled Achieving Consensus and Commitment to do the ‘Impossible’. It featured Jeff Goebel, and drew an enormous response from listeners, a number of whom have continued to work with Jeff since. So when I knew we were heading to the States, I reached out to Jeff. And soon after, he got in touch to say he was going to be hosting a workshop soon - would I like to come and be part of it? Would I what! It was one fascinating and enlightening experience. In so many ways. So the morning after the workshop, Jeff and I sat down on the front porch at his beautiful place in New Mexico to chat about it.
The first half is on the workshop, and in the back half we go on to talk about two other key issues. Firstly, how the processes Jeff runs can help attract the finance required to do more of the good stuff we well know is possible, in all sorts of areas. And secondly, how his current efforts are going to attract major funding to build this capacity in people globally, in the process of addressing wicked problems everywhere.
More on Jeff: Jeff became a Holistic Management trainer with Allan Savory in the mid-80s. But pretty soon felt it was missing something, as did Allan. Then a series of uncanny events and outstanding successes in Jeff’s life, including a pivotal experience with First Nations, set him on a path of what he calls community consensus work. He is now globally renowned for developing a highly effective program of respectful listening, visioning, and planning that attains 100% consensus - and commitment - of all parties, in all sorts of contexts. And often where human conflict and land degradation are at their worst.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now too). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 30 May 2024.
Title slide: AJ & Jeff during this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
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The Navajo Diné Nation is the biggest First Nation in the US, crossing Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. There we connected with Diné elder James Skeet, and his brilliant wife Joyce - descendant of award-winning Mennonite farmers in Pennsylvania. Together, they founded Spirit Farm, and the educational non-profit Covenant Pathways.
Spirit Farm is a demonstration and experiential farm focused on healing the high desert southwestern soil, and the communities living there. They do this by weaving insights from modern holistic management and regenerative agriculture, with the ancient wisdom of dryland farming and Native American cosmology. And they’ve created a suite of incredible value-add enterprises that importantly don’t perpetuate the commodisation of food, land and culture. While their education and employment programs bring others along with a range of experiences on the land, such that they’re now called upon around the country and the world. Which is part of where this conversation culminates - with the extraordinary sharing of spiritual stewardship with an African American community, and the profound implications – and inspiration - for all of us.
We sat down together by an ancient spring and sweat lodge for this. And close with something special from the following morning.
This episode has chapter markers and a transcript, if you’d like to navigate the conversation that way (available on most apps now). The transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 27 May 2024. With thanks to podcast member Chris Diehl for introducing us.
Title slide: Joyce & James Skeet at Spirit Farm (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
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Steve Mushin is an award-winning industrial designer and inventor, and an old mate from when we both were part of the team at CERES – the legendary community environment park in inner Melbourne. He’s also now the author of children’s book ‘Ultrawild: An audacious plan to rewild every city on earth’ (Allen & Unwin). Eight years in the making, it's an intricately illustrated book exploring visions for rapidly transforming cities to reverse climate change and species extinction. The book contains over 100 ludicrous sounding, and just maybe possible inventions, illustrated with over 1,000 drawings. It’s packed with curious facts on everything from how plants and fungi share resources and the soil engineering power of megafauna, to insect and mechanical flight, high-tech microbe-powered toilets and much more.
It took me a little while to pry the book from my boy’s hands for a read. And it’s fair to say my brain was bending with the force of Steve’s lens on the world - always a welcome thing. Equally welcome were the parts of our conversation here where we delved into how rewilding might square with the rapid mass deployment of industrial technologies like renewables, EVs and so on. As well as how it might square with a vegan or omnivorous diet, with Steve firmly in the vegan camp, and me? Well, long-time listeners of this podcast will have heard some of my journey from vegetarian to omnivore, largely through the experience of the podcast. Yes, here’s a bit of the George Monbiot/Alan Savory stouch - without the stouch!
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded online with Steve at home in Aotearoa New Zealand on 5 April 2024.
Title slide: Steve at work (supplied).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
Mirari, by Spoonbill (the YouTube film clip).
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:And for the kids, Steve speaks with our young son about his book, on Yeshe Interviews – coming soon
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
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A couple of weeks ago, I received some big news. The California State Assembly unanimously passed what’s been dubbed the ‘Beaver Bill’. Yes, California is bringing the beaver back. For those who might not be fully across how big this news is, the beaver is a keystone species that assists in restoring watershed and ecosystem functions in areas that need them most. And in an era of warming, fire and desertification, and with insurers leaving the state in droves, recognition of this is growing here. That’s with thanks to the community that’s been building a campaign for 25 years. And this is just the tip of the beaver dam of what they’ve been up to in that time.
The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) has just celebrated its 30th anniversary, and as it happens, has also just been announced as the 2024 Non-profit of the Year for its Senate District. It’s a wonderfully restored 80-acre residential, research, demonstration, advocacy and organizing center in Sonoma County, California, a bit over 50 miles north of San Francisco. And extending out from there, it develops strategies for regional-scale community resilience, working with tribes, non-government organizations, private landowners, and an array of agencies to achieve this, locally and internationally.
So you can imagine how happy I was to meet one of its co-founders while we were in California, Brock Dolman. A man Judith Schwartz describes as an all-round brilliant natural historian, restoration practitioner, teacher and raconteur. All of that is in evidence in this conversation, as we trace Brock’s fascinating life journey from military child to adventurous seeker to founding the OAEC with some other ‘crazy people’ with little money. And how together they would become a powerhouse at bringing people together for increasingly remarkable regeneration.
As always, head here for chapter markers. You can find a transcript there too (also available on Apple and some other apps), which is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded 9 May 2024.
Title slide: Brock Dolman (supplied).
See more photos on the website, and for more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Send us a Text Message.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with David Bronner, the Cosmic Engagement Officer of the famed Dr Bronner’s, whose life story is as rich and foamy as the company's iconic soap.
Since David became CEO of the top-selling brand of natural soaps, body care and food products in 1998, the company has grown from $4 million in revenue to well over $100 million, and all while continuing to change so much about the systems and stories we live by. In recent times, they’ve co-founded Regenerative Organic Certification, setting a whole new standard of global supply chain transformation. And here today David announces a new upcoming initiative called the Purpose Pledge, which follows on from last week’s conversation on regenerative finance with Esther Park uncannily well.
But what really had me wondering, as I approached Bronner’s Californian HQ, was how David feels about the iconic All-One company ethos and legacy, 76 years in, given the state of the world today. Having emerged from the tragedy of the Holocaust at the hands of David’s inspired grandfather Emanuel, and knowing that amongst the company’s trailblazing regenerative supply chains are communities in both Palestine and Israel, this was a profound opener to our conversation.
We go on to talk about their deep involvement in plant medicine and the psychedelics resurgence, and how it relates to David’s personal healing – and even how he returned to work at the company. Then there’s the capping of executive pay and giving to others all profits they don’t need, how to grapple with ‘regen washing’, David’s ‘big journey’ as a vegan now advocating for regenerative agriculture, and finally, the breaking news.
As always, head here for chapter markers if you’d like to see an overview or navigate the conversation that way. You can find a transcript there too (also available on Apple and some other apps), which is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded on 16 May 2024.
Title slide: AJ & David, after the yarn (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
With thanks to Mel from Dr Bronner’s Australia, and everyone at Bronner’s HQ.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
For all the great regenerative work bubbling up everywhere right now, it seems fair to say that finance and investment in it is lagging a little. As my guest today puts it, we often hear about how farmers and land managers need to change, for example, but we hear less often about how finance and investment needs to change. It’s why a major report and project was launched online in Australia last year by Sustainable Table, ‘Regenerating Investment in Food and Farming’. I hosted a conversation at that launch, which you might remember became episode 161. I never forgot it. So as soon as we knew we were coming to the US / Turtle Island, I asked Esther Park if she’d be up for meeting in person, to dig deeper into her paradigm changing work as CEO of Cienaga Capital.
Key to this story, too, is another pioneering woman you’ll hear about, Sallie Calhoun. 23 years ago, Sallie and her partner acquired Paicines Ranch, originally named Rancho Cienega de los Paicines. They subsequently set in tow a remarkable regeneration of the land, an array of enterprises, and learning journeys for people – including other investors and philanthropists. Sallie later founded Cienaga Capital, and recruited Esther to the lead role. Also key to this story, in all manner of unexpected ways, is Esther’s Korean ancestry.
Head here for chapter markers if you’d like to see an overview or navigate the conversation that way. You can find a transcript there too (also available on Apple and some other apps), which is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access for those who need or like to read.
Recorded at UCB, Berkeley, on 3 May 2024.
Title slide: Esther Park where we started our conversation (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Richard Heinberg is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates on the urgent need, and inviting prospects, of a transition away from fossil fuels. He’s the author of 14 books including some of the seminal works on our current energy and environmental crises. I remember reading The Party’s Over 20 years ago, and have followed Richard’s work right through to his most recent book (and excellent parallel podcast series), Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival – and what praise that one drew, from people like Bill McKibben, Joanna Macy, Wes Jackson, Maude Barlow, Peter Buffet, Dahr Jamail, Douglas Rushkoff and Dennis Meadows.
Richard also features in countless film and other productions, along with the online course developed with the Post Carbon Institute, where Richard is a founder and Senior Fellow. And seven years ago, Richard was kind enough to be a special guest on a panel event I brought together on energy transition, which attracted a couple of hundred people and later became episode 23 on this podcast. Richard is also an outstanding musician, with an extensive tour and back catalogue extending from the ‘60s. All the more reason that after the event we did in 2017, we resolved to catch up if I ever made it to Santa Rosa.
That’s where this sweeping conversation took place, on transformations in energy and food systems, us humans, and his own fascinating life. Culminating in Richard’s crystalised framing of the unprecedented challenge facing us, and how we might pull it off.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded by a restored Santa Rosa Creek on 30 April 2024.
Title slide: Richard & AJ in Santa Rosa (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
This special extra to episode 204 features the last handful of minutes with the legendary best-selling author Paul Hawken. This is where the episode culminated in Paul offering a world premiere reading of the rousing finale to his upcoming book, Carbon: The Book Of Life. The reading happened to be accompanied, too, by some notable sounds from around the garden and surrounding redwoods.
Head here for a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded at Paul's place in northern California on 27 April 2024.
Title slide: The nearby Muir Woods National Monument (pic: Anthony James).
Hear the full episode, and see more photos, on the episode web page. And to see and hear more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Paul Hawken is the legendary author behind myriad best-sellers, including most recently Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation, and before it, Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. Both books were accompanied by comprehensive online portals that continue to engage people from all walks, all around the world. Paul’s next book is a more personal volume – perhaps his most personal. It’s called Carbon: The book of life. And ahead of its release, it was my privilege to join him at his place just outside San Francisco, to talk about the book, and so much else, in what might be his most personal podcast too.
You might say the upcoming book puts carbon back into perspective, as no less than the centerpiece of life itself. If you’re anything like me, be prepared to have your mind blown. You won’t see, or perhaps more pointedly hear, the world the same way again. In some ways, this book feels like a legacy piece. And so too this podcast. Not that they’re the last we’ll hear from Paul (the next book is already in mind). But this feels like a very special moment in time with this extraordinary writer, journo, entrepreneur, consultant to world leaders, and so much more. And it culminates in a world premiere reading, of the rousing finale to the book – accompanied uncannily by some notable sounds from around the garden.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded 27 April 2024.
Title slide: Paul & AJ in conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:Hear the most popular episode ever on this podcast, my conversation with Paul on the release of Regeneration, for episode 96.
And my previous conversation with Paul, in late 2022 from the Kimberley, is on episode 145, Regeneration: A Year On.
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
The community in the Australian federal seat of Curtin elected the 7th new independent MP to parliament 2 years ago now, and the first and only (to date) in WA. In those two years, that community independent, Kate Chaney, has continued to drive a level of engagement and outcomes that no one I speak to has any memory of happening before. Perhaps it happened back when the major political parties first got going, when they had some membership to speak of? Today, less than 0.5% of Australians are members of a major party – not even the 1%!
In contrast, democracy is on the rise via this community independents movement. And here in Curtin, it’s resulted in multiple deliberative democratic processes, consistently brilliant outcomes, and some recent ground-breaking developments – from wellbeing economies, to climate, to transparent elections. But Kate’s expressed great fear too, based on what she’s seeing in parliament.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations.)
Recorded 19 April 2024.
Title slide: Kate & AJ in conversation (pic: Angie Hewitt).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (thanks to Josie Symons).
Find more:Curtin’s Pathway to Net Zero: Making our community healthier, fairer and more liveable as we address climate change.
Upcoming events.
Kate’s article on the Fair & Transparent Elections Bill.
My articles:
We Can’t Keep Adding Cars to Our Roads – Is It Time to Say Goodbye?, on the World Economic Forum website
Cutting Back on Electricity is the Cleanest Power Source of All – As Our Household Shows
Enough’s Enough: Buying More Stuff Isn’t Always the Answer to Happiness.
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
I’ve been promising some big news for a little while now. Well, earlier this week, on Earth Day, a special and unexpected launch took place.
Head here for a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded at San Francisco Airport on 22 April 2024.
Title slide: In the redwoods just outside San Francisco, where a woman passed us on the trail and wished us happy Earth Day. (The local radio station also played nature sounds all day.)
To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the Show.
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Lamine Sonko is an acclaimed composer, artistic director, performer and multi-instrumentalist continuing his family line of Guéwels. That’s a role inherited by certain members of traditional communities in Senegal who are tasked with communicating ancient storytelling and ‘songlines’ through dance, rhythms and song. And earlier this year, that converged with his role in Melbourne-based afro-beat band, the Afrobiotics, when he was joined by his five bandmates back in Senegal on a landmark tour. And one of those five blokes is an old mate I played in a rock band with in the ‘90s. Simon Edwards is an incredible guitarist, teacher, and soulful traveller. I’ve been wanting to speak with these guys for years, and when they happened to return from the tour while I was in Melbourne, it finally happened.
Connected to the band's journey, in 2018 Lamine embarked on a search for a deeper understanding of how ancient musical traditions are embodied by the Guéwel elders of Dakar, Senegal. The project, called 13:12, has culminated so far in a film, guided by Lamine’s mother, and a live theatre production that previewed at The National Theatre Sorano in Dakar on this tour. It was said to be ‘an unforgettable blend of joy, emotion, and ancestral presence’. And when the band converged on Dakar at the same time, there was profound revelation, connection and healing for visitors and locals alike.
The word Guewel means 'to bring people together in a circle', and that’s what we did a few weeks ago at Simon’s place. In the still of a late evening, a certain stillness enveloped this conversation too, through to a very special live rendition at the end.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded on 14 March 2024.
Title slide: Lamine and Simon on stage with the Afrobiotics.
See more photos on the website, and for more behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Disco Dakar, by the Afrobiotics.
Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the bicentennial episode. And who better to mark the occasion than this legend of regenerative agriculture, David Marsh. To visit Allendale Farm is like stepping into an incredible rewilding of country – as a livestock farm! David’s been here for nearly 60 years, the first half of which he ran industrialised cropping and livestock farming, which continued to devastate the land, his bank account, his family’s health, and increasingly, his conscience. The second half, he ditched the cropping and started to run livestock regeneratively, letting the land do more of what it wanted to do. Now he sees birdlife akin to RAMSAR listed wetlands, 1500 new trees that seeded themselves, and myriad other extraordinary changes. And powering this enormous legacy, a family tragedy that continues to shape their lives in profound ways.
A long-held hope, my family visited David and his wife Mary near Boorowa in NSW a few weeks ago. I only half-jokingly wanted to call this episode ‘the do-nothing farmer’ – and even the ‘do-nothing and pay-nothing farmer’ - with reference to the deft, laid-back, ‘hands off’ approach David applies to the land, its self-organising regeneration so evident. But he thought that sounded a bit less than glorious, and insisted it’s more complex than that. I’ll let David explain, in a treasured exchange, in suitably golden twilight.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded at Allendale Farm on 10 March 2024.
Title slide: David & AJ ahead of this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
This podcast has been increasingly hearing about the extraordinary outcomes that can stem from deliberative democratic processes. I stillhear from listeners about past episodes with people like Jeff Goebel and Amanda Cahill.
So this week, we head to the nation’s capital to speak with someone I’ve been looking forward to meeting for years. Professor Nicole Curato is with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She’s also a prominent journalist, particularly in her former home country of the Philippines. She’s written op-eds for the New York Times, The Guardian & Al Jazeera. And she regularly collaborates with CNN Philippines, occasionally serving as a television presenter, and has hosted documentaries and produced podcasts.
Nicole explores how democratic innovations unfold in the aftermath of tragedies, including disasters, armed conflict, and urban crime. To that we might add increasing stresses like climate change, housing and political polarisation. Nicole is the author of Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action. Which might just as well have been sub-titled, from spectacular tragedy to spectacular deliberative action, such is the nature of some of the stories she has to share - in terms of their outcomes in the world, and their life-changing effects on those involved. And in a context right now where democracy itself is on the line, and with it the possibility of coming together to produce more of the extraordinary outcomes we know we can, Nicole was the person I needed to speak with.
I suggested to Nicole that we meet in her favourite part of Canberra. She took us to Tilley’s. And what a place. No surprises then, that we wind up talking about how all this relates to social media, karaoke and Taylor Swift.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded in Canberra on 7 March 2024.
Title slide: Nicole Curato at Tilley’s, just before this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Sam Vincent grew up on the farm where Charles Massy famously heard the call of the reed warbler for the first time in 150 years or so. But, like most millennials in his position, he wasn’t going to stay there. Until his old man now famously put his hand in a woodchipper. That’s when Sam left his inner-city life as a writer to help out, and unexpectedly found himself thinking differently about the farm, and his old man. Sam now runs Gollion Farm, with a suite of thriving enterprises, profound new connections with First Nations, and ongoing regeneration of country. And when he wrote a book about it all, called ‘My Father and Other Animals: How I took on the family farm’, it won the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
The book is billed as a ‘memoir about belonging, humility and regeneration – of land, family and culture’. Charles Massy calls it a delightful ‘must-read’, Anna Krien calls it ‘one of the most hopeful stories today’, and Billy Griffiths calls it a ‘rollicking comic memoir’.
A few weeks ago, we visited Sam at the family farm, just outside Canberra in the Yass Valley of NSW to chat about it.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded on 4 March 2024.
Title slide: Sam Vincent, under the crab apple tree (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Late last year, I arrived at a quandary. I’d been hearing about how inaccessible land ownership is for younger folk, and how investment capital is still relatively slow to come on board the incredible broad scale potential of regenerative agriculture (notwithstanding often great intent). And I’d been hearing how even long-term legends in regen ag are still expected to be saddled with enormous debt and rates of return (to say nothing of squeezed prices), while they also regenerate the majority of the national and global estate on our behalf. Clearly all untenable. So I began to wonder out loud, what if there’s something fundamentally misplaced with the current approach to attracting investment in regeneration?
When thinking this aloud, I got some nodding heads and an introduction to Jim Phillipson, former pro-cycling champ, businessman, philanthropist, and co-founder of the Rendere Trust and Biodiversity Legacy. Join us as at Jim’s place as we delve into the transformative concept of stewardship over traditional land ownership. Jim's been helping people transition land and capital into stewardship models of ownership for a while now, having started with his own. And yep, he was advised this would never work. Here he shares his story and insights on how reshaping land titles to reflect stewardship can align investments with regenerative agriculture, potentially tapping all sorts of potential quickly, and how a related ethos is manifesting across media, politics, and reconciliation with First Nations.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and a transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded at Jim’s place, on regenerating land in Gippsland, Victoria (as a dust storm blew up from surrounding vegetable farms), 3 March 2024.
Title slide: Jim & Heather Phillipson with AJ.
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Zach Bush MD has become an internationally recognised educator on the microbiome, as it relates to human health, soil health, food systems, water systems, and regenerative living as a whole. The touchstone insight of Zach’s initial transformation was that we don’t need to solve each of our many increasingly prevalent diseases – we need to regenerate the source of our health and vitality. And he’s been startled by our regenerative capacity since embarking on a film project called Farmer’s Footprint back in 2018. It became a global phenomenon, prompting the creation of Farmer’s Footprint USA, Australia, UK, South Africa and New Zealand, so far, alongside a broader project called Project Biome.
Amongst all this, the transformations have continued for Zach. So this time, ahead of the Farmer’s Footprint Festival in NSW, I hoped to get to know more of the person behind the star. The feeling behind the public accolades and judgements. Along with what this doctor does when he tends intrinsic health, why farmers continue to be at the heart of his life calling, Zach’s intentions to run for President, his vision of a regenerative economy, his response to a charge of talking psychobabble, new films and courses, all culminating in the spiritual roots of it all, and a world first - Zach’s first live musical performance on a podcast.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers and transcript, also available on Apple and some other apps. (Note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read.)
Recorded in the northern rivers of NSW on 10 November 2023.
In case you're noting the bird sounds in my intro and outro, they were recorded on the Mornington Peninsula back in Victoria (visiting my brother's family).
Title slide: AJ and Zach on stage at the Farmer’s Footprint Australia Festival (pic: Olivia Katz).
To see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:Nutrisoil’s WormFest on this week, 21-22 March.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Dr Dominique Hes is deeply embedded in the regenerative movement. A renowned educator, author of Designing for Hope, advisor on the Federal Circular Economy Ministerial Advisory Group, Chair of Greenfleet, and featured presence in some of Damon Gameau’s wonderful films, Dominique started working in regenerative development 20 years ago, and ‘sustainability’ for ten years before that. Her focus is on real projects, on the ground, in place. And today, we visit one of them. In her place. Newport Lakes. What was a quarry, is now an extraordinary landscape right in the inner-west of Melbourne. And all on the back of the community here. This is now the subject of Dominique’s next book. Which is just as well, as nobody I’ve spoken with in Melbourne even knows it exists.
So join us for a walk through Newport Lakes, as Dominique shares this incredible story with us, along with the story of her life - its transformations, hopes, struggles, breakthroughs, and regeneration reflected in this place.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded on 26 February 2024.
Title slide: Dominique at Newport Lakes as we pressed record (pic: Anthony James).
See a selection of 'before and after' photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Sacrosanct, by Duel Native aka Stephen Choi.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Tim Fisher is the eldest son of the late Professor Frank Fisher. You’ve heard Frank’s name a bit on this podcast, legendary systems thinking educator in Australia – and good mate over the last dozen or so years of his life. Twice my good fortune was meeting Tim, and keeping in touch over the years. Tim is a wealth of experience, grace and salience in his own right. So, returning to Melbourne to see family for the first time in years, it seemed a good time to visit this extended family of sorts, and press record on a long-awaited chat about his fascinating life, dice with death, and vital work.
Tim has run publications across media platforms, government agencies and non-profits. He’s edited and written for the ABC, SBS, The Age, Broadsheet, Smith Journal, Surfing World, Surfer, Triple J, White Horses, Patagonia and more. As a board member of Psychology for a Safe Climate and a member of Surfers for Climate, he devotes much of his time to storytelling and communication around climate change. Especially on the bigger and often unseen picture of energy transition – including the opportunities and needs beyond electrifying everything. To that end, he’s currently Head of Communications at the Energy Efficiency Council, with the ear of the federal government, and a major conference in May featuring international keynote Amory Lovins.
We talk about all this – life, death, growing up with Frank, surf, media and energy transitions – and emerge with some consistent threads of success, and possibilities to go on with. You’ll hear some listener mail at the end too.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded on 24 February 2024.
Title slide: Anthony & Tim.
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Regenerating Life is a new feature-length documentary that takes a fresh look at solving the climate crisis - and everything else. Internationally acclaimed New York filmmaker John Feldman recently premiered it in the US (where recent podcast guest Judith Schwartz featured on the panel). He’s now about to accompany its premiere in Europe.
The film shifts away from the narrative that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of the climate crisis – seeing that as just one symptom, significant as it is, of humankind’s relentless destruction of nature as a whole. This is because it’s the vast biodiversity on this planet that regulates and balances the climate. And the key take home? We can and are reversing this destructive process by Regenerating Life.
The film is also a kind of tribute to a much-loved Aussie scientist, Walter Jehne. And John talks here about his own transformation with varied projects and other legends in systemic thinking over the decades. Some feature in this film, like Vandana Shiva, Wes Jackson, Didi Pershouse, Satish Kumar and Naima Penniman. At the close, a special feature, with music made for the film by John’s wife, renowned composer Sheila Silver.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded 16 February 2024.
Title slide: John Feldman (supplied).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Music from the film by Sheila Silver, with piano by Sheila and violin by Emmanuel Vukovich.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:Regenerating Life website with trailer, more on John, and how you can see and screen the film.
The composition Shooting Ruminants (partly inspired by the Kachana Station story), part of Resilient Earth by Sheila Silver.
My conversation with Tony Rinaudo for episode 64.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
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We’re back at the Reconnection Festival for the last of three inter-related panel conversations, each building on the other. This one's on health, and features explosive revelations about a ‘Motor Neuron Disease alley’ linked to pollution and river degeneration in Australia’s Riverina agricultural district. Akin to the ‘cancer alley’ of the Mississippi River that transformed the life of our international guest, Zach Bush MD. Zach went on to found US not-for-profit Farmer’s Footprint, and has now shepherded it to five countries so far, including Farmer’s Footprint Australia.
Australia’s MND alley is just part of what Kate McBride is reporting on, and living, as a researcher with The Australia Institute and 5th generation farmer, born and bred on the half-million-acre Tolarno Station on the Darling Barka River. She came to national prominence unintentionally as the river ran dry and ongoing fish kills have followed.
Dr Pran Yoganathan, a Gastroenterologist and renowned voice of the 'regenerative medical movement', and also now a farmer, shares his experiences within the medical system in this context.
Our guests bring to light the urgency of revisiting our approach to medicine and agriculture, and everything else, and how we can do it. We hear profound stories of embracing our cultural roots, generating greater community advocacy, and collaborating across diverse viewpoints, right into the halls of power.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded in the northern rivers of NSW on 11 November 2023.
Title slide: AJ, Zach, Pran & Kate (pic: Olivia Katz).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:You can hear more of Zach in conversation with Tanya Massy, Ella Noah Bancroft and myself the year prior for episode 152.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
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Welcome to the first of our mid-week specials. This is one of the experiments I want to try this year. Short grab releases featuring particular opportunities, stories or updates. There are just so many coming on, I hope this helps you to access them, and all of us to build on them. As ever, you’ll let me know what you think!
First up then, a huge opportunity in the wheatbelt of WA. The Haggerty family have put their original ‘home’ property up for sale. This is where they developed the foundation of their globally renowned ‘natural intelligence farming’ model over a few decades. Here they share with us some of the what, why and how of the sale, along with a sense of the enormous possibilities on offer.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded on 8 February 2024.
Title slide: the view Ian talks about (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:Flyer with contact for the sale, viewable on the episode webpage.
The real estate agent’s page for the property.
Di’s LinkedIn page (with email).
The new Natural Intelligence Farming page on LinkedIn.
The amazing Miller and Baker in North Perth, mentioned in this conversation and featured on episode 69.
You can hear more of Di and Ian in conversation with Anthony most recently for episode 142.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Feast on our next conversation at the Reconnection Festival, the largest gathering of the regenerative movement in this country to date. This time, we’re talking food, for which the 800 people present were joined by a few more visionaries:
- Laura Dalrymple, founder of the extraordinary Feather and Bone in Sydney
- Matthew Evans, author, TV host & farmer at Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania, and
- Darren Doherty, founder of the globally renowned Regrarians out of Central Victoria.
The general trajectory of the conversation was ‘what’s hot, what’s not, what’s working and what’s next?’ It broaches some of the tough stuff regarding how we navigate the complexities of the global food system to foster a healthier society and planet? This includes challenges related to meat debates, food production health crises, and economic barriers. We also delve into the treasure trove of stuff that’s working well. Which sums to a call to further reconnect with the journey of our food from farm to fork (and far beyond), even amidst financial hurdles and a world in flux.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded live at the Green Room stage of the BluesFest venue in the northern rivers of NSW on 11 November 2023.
Title slide L-R: Anthony, Darren, Matthew and Laura (pic: Olivia Katz).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:Farmer’s Footprint Australia.
You can hear more of Matthew Evans with Anthony for episode 60, on his book On Eating Meat, and episode 138 on his following book Soil (by a very active Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan in Perth / Boorloo).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
We head over to the eastern-most point of Australia this week, for the largest gathering of the regenerative movement in this country to date. Join us at the Reconnection Festival, staged by Farmer’s Footprint Australia in November last year. We sit with a panel of three visionary women, for a conversation on culture that laid a foundation for everything that followed. Two of our panellists are previous podcast guests: Dr Amanda Cahill, CEO and founder of The Next Economy, and Jade Miles, CEO of Sustainable Table and farmer and author at Black Barn Farm. They were joined here by Indigenous elder Isira, known as Aunty Jinta.
This was one of my favourite conversations last year, and in many ways lays a foundation for this year too. There are profound insights shared here into the cultural bedrock necessary for nurturing life on Earth. Our guests faced some wrenching dilemmas at the time too, providing a powerful launching point for exploring what might actually offer ways through our most trenchant impasses, to beneficial transformations.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded live in the northern rivers of NSW on 11 November 2023.
Title slide L-R: Anthony, Amanda, Jade & Isira (pic: Olivia Katz).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Find more:Amanda Cahill also features in conversation with Anthony at her home on episode 134.
Jade Miles chats with Anthony at her farm on episode 128 (and with Rachel Ward live in Margaret River in episode 180).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Join us at the grand finale of the 2023 Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River WA. Following on from last week, today we’re with another all-star panel. And again, we’ve no predetermined agenda, but to reflect on what had gone before, and what might come next.
- Dr Judi Earl is a national treasure, having conducted the first studies describing the benefits to pasture from planned grazing. She has been a Holistic Management educator since 2002, and showcases the capacity of grazing animals to regenerate land on her 454 hectare property in NSW.
- Rowan Reid is a global figurehead in agroforestry. He’s a co-founder of one of Australia’s most successful Landcare groups, the Otway Agroforestry Network, in southern Victoria. More than 12,000 visitors have toured his Bambra Agroforestry Farm, which is set up as a 42-hectare outdoor classroom for farmers, scientists, students and tree lovers.
- Kristy Stewart is a young leader who was born and raised up the road from Rowan Reid at Yan Yan Gurt West, an award-winning sheep and agroforestry farm of 575 acres, on Wadawurrung and Gadubanud Country. You might remember Kristy from episode 132 out at the family farm, or facilitating for Nicole Masters in her workshop last year.
- Grant Sims runs the family farm in Victoria, which has been no-till since the early 80’s. When Grant came back to the farm full time he started looking at ways to improve the life and function of the soil through biology. Today he is one of this country’s most popular speakers and trainers on the topic.
Our guests are not just talking about change; they're living it, transforming the very soil we stand on, food we eat, water we drink, clothes we wear, air we breathe, livelihoods we make, and communities we belong to.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded on 7 September 2023.
Title slide L-R: Kristy, Rowan, Grant & Judi (pic: Daniela Tommasi).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Wadandi Boodja, by The Nomadics, off their latest album.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to podcast member Josie Symons).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to the new year. And welcome to a new world, where soil renews and pastures flourish, where every bite of food embodies a philosophy of renewal. The Regenerative Era blooms, and with it, a transformative approach to our landscapes and the very sustenance of life. Join us on a journey to Margaret River, where the 2023 Regenerative Agriculture Conference ignited a beacon of hope and inspiration with a turnout of passionate souls exceeding 300. This episode is your exclusive pass to the heart of a movement, with regenerative systems pioneers forming an all-star panel that pulled no punches and had plenty of laughs along the way:
- Dr Terry McCosker OAM, founder of RCS Australia and one of the great innovators of Australian agriculture for over 55 years;
- Dianne & Ian Haggerty, globally renowned pioneers in WA’s wheatbelt;
- Heidi Mippy, award-winning Noongar and Thiin-Mah Warriyangka woman who has worked in community development for over 25 years, runs a business, and has a chapter in the best-selling book Rising Matriarch;
- And Rod O’Bree from Yanget Farm, whose work has been described as taking Peter Andrews’ famed Natural Sequence Farming to the next level - to say nothing of his work regenerating supply chains.
This episode isn't just a recount of a conference; it's an immersion into an era that redefines our relationship with nature, a blueprint for a future where regeneration is not just a concept but a living, breathing reality.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on Apple and some other apps, and the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect).
Recorded on 6 September 2023.
Title slide L-R: Heidi, Terry, Rod, Ian & Di (pic: Daniela Tommasi).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a member via the Patreon page.
Music:Green Shoots, by The Nomadics, off their latest album.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
The RegenNarration playlist, featuring music chosen by guests (with thanks to subscribing member Josie Symons).
Find more:Hear more from Terry McCosker (and wife Pam) in ep136, Heidi Mippy in ep178, and Di & Ian Haggerty in ep142.
And hear Jade Miles & Rachel Ward the night before the conference in ep180.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
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Welcome to the customary package of highlights from another brilliant array of guests throughout 2023, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country heard along the way. Our guests were farmers, artists, First Nations, entrepreneurs, investors, former miners, migrants, health professionals, writers, journalists, facilitators, producers, consultants, researchers, diplomats, political economists, permaculturalists, market gardeners, chefs and more; some famous, many not, of all ages, from right around Australia and the world. It’s all put together here in what sums to a feast of uplift, fun, beauty, guts and love.
See the website for the ‘track list’.
Title image: A moment of trust, Anthony face to face with Kalahari the bull, at Kachana Station (pic: Chris Henggeler).
With thanks to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
Find more:To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you again in 2024!
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome to a very special final episode for 2023. After seven years of this podcast, covering many inspiring stories, there’s clearly no mystery as to how we go about regeneration. So why is the macro story, if you like, the big picture - extinctions, emissions, inequality, health - still going the wrong way? Is there something we’re missing, for all our regenerative efforts? Something that doesn’t just help a few of us on regenerative trajectories, but all of us? Something that changes what happens, not just in the margins, but all over?
Throughout the last 18 months or so, in particular, a thread has emerged on the podcast that suggests there is indeed that something, and we know how to go about that too. And my guest today, Jeff Goebel, has been at it longer than most. You might remember my recent guest on ep175, the award-winning author of The Reindeer Chronicles, Judith Schwartz, talking about him. She wrote up an incredible story in that book, of community transformation guided by Jeff, and was so inspired by it she has since set up a new initiative with him.
Jeff Goebel became a Holistic Management trainer with Allan Savory in the mid-80s. But pretty soon felt it was missing something, as did Allan. Then a series of uncanny events and outstanding successes in Jeff’s life, including a pivotal experience with First Nations, set him on a path of what he calls community consensus work. He is now globally renowned for developing a highly effective program of respectful listening, visioning, and planning that attains 100% consensus - and commitment - of all parties, in all sorts of contexts. And often where human conflict and land degradation are at their worst.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded on 8 December 2023.
Title slide: Jeff Goebel on Navajo land in 2013.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Community Consensus Institute.
Do the Impossible.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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D’harawal man Gregory Andrews is the Former Ambassador and first Threatened Species Commissioner of Australia who went on Climate Hunger Strike outside Australia’s federal parliament for, as he put it, my kids and country. On the 16th day, he was hospitalised. And while Gregory began his recovery, a community vigil of sorts kicked in, with people taking Gregory’s place, fasting for a day each. And that’s just a hint of some of the extraordinary insight and power sparked by Gregory’s experience - as indeed the history of these sorts of experiences has often found. Though not all progressive voices, in this instance, including my federal independent MP, as it happens, Kate Chaney, were in support.
We talk about all this in what became a very personal exchange about the value of what we can give of our lives, in these times.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded on 27 November 2023.
Title slide: Gregory on his back patio amongst the trees in Canberra during this conversation.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Lyrebird Dreaming, Gregory’s website, including the Climate Hunger Strike petition outlining his 5 demands of the government.
Songs from a Hungry Finch (Gregory’s playlist while on hunger strike).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Earlier this year, Associate Professor in Law, Alessandro Pelizzon, was on the podcast talking about some of the latest global paradigm shifting developments in our legal systems. A couple of weeks ago, there was another such development. The EU is going to criminalise severe environmental harms ‘comparable to ecocide’. And related to that, it’s also broaching post-growth economies. All part of broader shifts in deciding what we value most, and how our systems can best change to reflect that.
With this in mind, we also go on to talk about what Alessandro is observing in our media systems - the emergence of a new phase of ‘climate-denialism’, and from some people who have great appeal to many of us, and in a variety of ways, from Elon Musk to Jordan Peterson. How to make sense of that? And to what extent might this be related to the paradigm shifts above?
That leads us to the broader question, what do we do about media? We compare notes on what’s been brewing on and around the podcast lately. And to close, we get a brief update on the Resonant Earth project that Alessandro has co-founded and talked about last time.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded on 24 November 2023.
Title slide: from a media release about the EU agreement (source).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Hear more from Alessandro, most recently on episode 159 in the northern rivers in April of this year (with further links): on the collapse & renewal of universities, the education we need, & latest on Rights of Nature.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Today is a special release ahead of this week’s scheduled episode. It was recorded with a full house of over 400 people in the main theatre at Federation Square in Melbourne, for the memorial service of my late great mate and mentor, and legend in systems thinking – and practice – in this country, Professor Frank Fisher. Mine was a humble opener for a few beautiful eulogies offered on the day.
Today would be, or is, Frank’s 80th birthday. I’ve commemorated the occasion in recent years with episodes featuring fittingly special guests – from the late Hazel Henderson, to the still thriving Allan Savory, Charlie Massy and Paul Hawken. This time, for the big 8-0, I’d been imagining Frank still being here, wondering where our conversations and experiences may have gone over the years. And that took me back to this event, and the best tribute story I could muster at the time. And hard as it was, there did seem to be a bit of magic about.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This was recorded on 15 September 2012, with deep gratitude to friend and film-maker Chris Grose, who gave so much of himself without notice, to film hours of footage of Frank in the months before he died, along with this event.
Title slide: from the back of the room, with Fran Macdonald speaking (credit: Rodney Dekker).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Cycles, by Simon Edwards (composed for the occasion). Simon is also guitarist for the incredible Afrobiotics and Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Find more:You can hear from Frank himself, with legendary ABC broadcaster Robyn Williams, on episode 24, The Wilderness Within.
And in an interview an early podcast listener sent in, from the Serbian program on SBS radio, on episode 5: Thinking & Living in Systems.
The Understandascope, founded in 2005 by Frank with cartoonist and National Living Treasure, Michael Leunig, is now home for the development of Frank’s legacy in collaboration with family, friends and former colleagues.
And the book mentioned by the publisher at the end, was Frank’s anthology: Response Ability: Environment, Health &
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Brooke Purvis is a podcast listener who reached out after hearing the most recent episode with Chris Henggeler from Kachana Station last month. She wondered if she could help with the ‘donkey situation’ there. It turns out she’s co-founded something called the Last Stop Donkey Program, out of Singleton in the Hunter Valley of NSW.
Brooke and husband Heath say they saw many people looking to purchase donkeys in an attempt to combat growing stock losses from dingo attacks, as donkeys are renowned for their stock protecting capabilities. Their website explains: ‘There was only one problem, donkeys are hard to come by. However, in the Northern Territory and Queensland they are classified as pests and eradication measures are in place, usually aerial culling.’ Well, we know we can add WA to the culling list, of course.
So, partnering with the local school, would you believe, the Last Stop Donkey Program was born - taking in wild donkeys, re-socialising them, and training prospective owners before they purchase the donkeys. But that doesn’t begin to describe what’s happening there, only two years in. From broader education and even donkey therapy programs, to enormously positive ramifications for country and those stewarding it. From the promise of major financial benefits to farmers and the public coffers, to revolutionising how we might view so-called ‘pest’ animals in this country – right through to our Apex predator, the dingo.
Along the way, the donkeys are transforming this former horse-riding champ, and the growing number of people the program is reaching. And offering the ultimate prospect of stitching our landscapes and communities back together again.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on 20 November 2023.
Title slide: donkey (supplied).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Last Stop Donkey Program.
Eight minute video from Landline on the ABC.
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This is an excerpt of one of the most pivotal conversations on the podcast this year. So many conversations since, and attempts to navigate the paradigm change talked about here, have come back to this launch event, and the stories expressed in it. Having just returned from the Re:Connection Festival in the northern rivers, and a little tour around it, I’ll have more out on the podcast soon about some of this trailblazing work going on.
This conversation marked the launch of a major report and project by not-for-profit outfit, Sustainable Table (you might remember Jade Miles, current CEO, talking about it on last week’s episode). I’m joined here by two international guests – the CEO of Cienega Capital, Esther Park, and the CEO of Steward, Dan Miller. And alongside us are co-founder of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Dr Katherine Trebeck, and regenerative farmer and lead author of the Regenerating Investment in Food and Farming report, Tanya Massy.
We pick it up from about the 40 minute mark, where the panel is gathering steam with some ‘real game changers’ coming on, including stories from around the world on how and where paradigm changes in investment are being achieved right now. Then there’s Q&A featuring other prominent folk around Australia, re-framing questions of scale, working in or outside existing systems, and vital processes of learning and transformation.
To hear the conversation in full, and see a range of links, head to episode 161, Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded online with live audience while I was at the Massy farm, Severn Park, on 20 April 2023.
Title slide: regeneration of food and farming in action (source: Sustainable Table).
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Rachel Ward is a famed actress, film-maker and now farmer. Jade Miles is the CEO of Sustainable Table, author of Futuresteading, and steward of the incredible Black Barn Farm. We shared this conversation with a live audience after a screening of Rachel’s brilliant documentary, Rachel’s Farm. It was a curtain raiser to the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River WA, and the penultimate event of Rachel’s film tour of 30 or so locations around the country.
That lent a certain perspective to this conversation – a kind of overview of the movement, and the country. And that met Jade’s vantage point, also touring the country and researching the world with a different lens, as CEO of Sustainable Table. You might recall their launch event which became episode 161 earlier this year, Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.
Unsurprisingly, talking with these two women at this time resulted in a very personal, hard-hitting, and inspired take on where things are at, what’s coming down the line, and the stories helping to make it happen.
You’ll hear the 3 of us in conversation for the first 15 minutes or so, then we interweave into our chat a handful of questions from the audience - who are also among the regenerative pioneers in this country.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on 5 September 2023.
Title slide: Jade Miles and Rachel Ward on stage (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:To screen the film, gain access to resources etc., head to the Rachel’s Farm website.
You can hear Rachel and Anthony in conversation just before the film’s premiere and tour, with Rachel’s co-star Mick Green, in episode 168.
You’ll find Jade at Black Barn Farm, Sustainable Table, and on episode 128 of this podcast: Operating at Human Speed. Stay tuned for more on her next book soon.
This conversation took place after a screening of Rachel’s Farm, as a curtain raiser to the Regenerative Agriculture conference 2023.
Join us at the RE:CONNECTION Festival this weekend (subscribers get a 10% discount – subscribe and see the discount code on the recent posts on
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It’s all go here now for the upcoming RE:CONNECTION Festival. But there are other reasons for this excerpt today. So many of my conversations these days, including after the Voice Referendum here in Australia, for example, come back to this part of episode 170 with Tim Hollo, author of ‘Living Democracy: An ecological manifesto for the end of the world as we know it’. And particularly the part where he said:
“And I asked Amanda if there was a secret ingredient that sits behind it [the incredible success stories she’s worked on]. And what she told me has just echoed in my head forever since. And she just said simply, ‘don’t ask people to pick a side’.”
We go on to talk here about the late great Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics. I had never heard of her till just prior to this episode. But she’s a big part of Tim’s book, and I later learned a big influence on previous guest Charles Massy, and an upcoming guest Charles introduced me to, former investment banker Justyn Walsh.
A number of people said to me at the time that this episode completely changed the way they think and feel about what’s possible. Perhaps this excerpt can help us through this particular moment, and guide us back, or further, to the work that we know actually does bring people together and, quite often, results in outcomes that are genuinely extraordinary - but on the other hand, could very well become the norm.
To hear the conversation in full, head to episode 170, ‘Changing What’s Possible’.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on Little Black Mountain in Canberra on 17 April 2023.
Title slide: overlooking the nation’s capital Canberra, on another walk up a hill (pic: Anthony James).
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Now to the Future, by FourPlay String Quartet (featuring Tim Hollo).
Find more:Join us at the RE:CONNECTION Festival in the norther rivers of NSW on 11 November 2023 (become a subscriber to get a discount – you’ll find the code in recent posts in Patreon).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
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Welcome to part two of Coming to a Head in the Kimberley, featuring one of the great stories of regeneration, and one of the most spectacular regions in the world, at a time when both are acutely on the line. Join us back at Kachana Station in the East Kimberley, with award-winning regenerative pastoralist Chris Henggeler.
We pick up the conversation from part one here, on the latest with the donkey situation. Since we last visited Kachana, the state department that ordered the donkeys at Kachana be shot as pests, and the Henggeler family that has geared their behavior towards regeneration, have been in mediation at the State Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal’s adjudication on that appeal is due before year’s end. It will carry with it the fate of the donkeys at Kachana, and with that the fate of a potential game-changer in regeneration at scale across the region – at a time when it’s desperately needed.
We talk here about the latest developments, research, language, history and other complexities on the matter - including the donkeys the Henggelers do shoot at Kachana. And we end up comparing notes on Chris’s related personal efforts with some paradigm changing health practices.
This thoughtful dialogue plunges into the intricate ties between biodiversity and domestication, sparking intriguing debates on managing both wild and domestic animals. We ponder over the immense significance of local wisdom and nature-informed decision-making in sculpting our future. It's an enlightening journey that challenges our understanding of relationships and responsibility, both towards ourselves and our planet.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect).
This episode was recorded at Kachana Station on 23 August 2023.
Title slide: Kachana Station (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:You can hear part one of this conversation (with photos and links), at Coming to a Head in the Kimberley: On regenerating consciousness, community and Country.
Resilient Earth, composed by Sheila Silver, featuring a piece called Shooting Ruminants, inspired by experiences like Kachana Station.
RE:CONNECTION Festival.
Kachana through kid’s eyes, on ep.15 of the Yeshe Interviews podcast on Spotify.
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Chris Henggeler and his family manage Kachana Station in the East Kimberley, only accessible by foot or air. They took responsibility for this desertified and abandoned country, and have achieved some incredible regeneration, culminating last year in a State Soil Health Champion award. Yet with still vast lands desertifying around them, and so much opportunity to build on models like Kachana, we recorded an episode out there two years ago titled Wanted Land Doctors. Now the second most popular episode on this podcast, it was a powerful invitation for the next generations to join the fray, and how the rest of us can help them do it. But there is trouble afoot.
The regeneration at Kachana Station has incorporated and relied on not just cattle, but wild donkeys. The bond these animals share with this Station family is clear. But just before we recorded that episode two years ago, the state department ordered the family to gun them down as pests. The Henggelers appealed the order. And the State Tribunal process adjudicating on that appeal is coming to a head in a few weeks.
In parallel, you could say, the Kimberley itself is coming to a head. Forecast to suffer unliveable heat in the coming decades, with ‘climate refugees’ already heading south, and worsening floods like this year's at Fitzroy Crossing.
So this week, Chris and I draw some of the broader patterns together. And we hear the latest on how they're being turned around at Kachana, and beyond. That leads us to a deep dive on some of the best stories, thinking and intuitive wisdom we’re coming across, that are helping more heads and hearts come together across divides, to make more of the good stuff happen.
Next week, part 2 of this episode will feature a full and telling update on the donkey situation.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect).
Recorded on 23 August 2023.
Title slide: Chris Henggeler & friends (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Kachana Station.
You can hear the previous chat with Chris in ep.100, Wanted Land Doctors (with more photos and links on that web page).
The change in land tenure at El Questro.
RE:CONNECTION Festival.
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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Heidi Mippy is a Noongar and Thiin-Mah Warriyangka woman, and a pioneer in Aboriginal education support and community development. For over 25 years, Heidi’s been leading and sharing in many brilliant success stories, with renowned integrity, smarts and spirit. Here, Heidi joins Anthony in the lead up to Australia’s national referendum on an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament this weekend, with no predetermined agenda, clear cut positions, or knowledge of what each other was thinking, going in. We hope this very personal and raw conversation adds something to your deliberations too, as the referendum approaches, and beyond.
In an atmosphere charged with emotions and complexities, Heidi and Anthony unravel layers of history, government initiatives, and community expectations. From the polarising conversations within the community to the anxieties that cloud the day after the referendum. We also examine the potential of the referendum, and the Uluru Statement as a whole, and the challenges that loom ahead either way.
But this isn't just about the referendum. It's about the power of community, the potency of 'what ifs', and how to harness that together to finally address our most urgent of needs, and realise our greatest of opportunities.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded online on 9 October 2023. And produced with human intelligence.
Title slide: Heidi Mippy (sourced here).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Heidi Mippy on LinkedIn.
Voice to Parliament referendum 2023.
Australian government fact sheet on the Voice.
You can hear the previous time Heidi was on the podcast in ep.143, Visited by the Rainbow Serpert. (There are photos on that web page too)
Biodiversity Conference 2023.
The best-selling book Heidi wrote a chapter for, Rising Matriarch.
RE:CONNECTION Festival.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
Welcome back to Fitzroy Crossing. Jimmy Dillon Andrews is a highly respected Bunuba elder and founder of Bungoolee Tours, nationally renowned for the cultural experiences it guides people through. These include journeys deep beneath the limestone of the Napier Range into Tunnel Creek, and through the heart of the incredible Windjana Gorge, carved from a 35O million year old Devonian Reef. The spiritual significance of these places to the Bunuba people is immense, having tended all this for at least 46,000 years.
They’re also central to the legend of famed Aboriginal warrior Jandamarra. Jimmy is a descendent of Jandamarra, describing him as a ‘man of magical power’. The story of Jandamarra is one of this Country’s most gripping and important ones, that still too few of us know about. So we’re fortunate to hear Jimmy share it here. Along with some other stories foundational to this Country, from footy, to of course the extraordinary flood this year.
We go on to explore the keys to his enterprise success, and his visions for the future (along with the Voice referendum). And all with Jimmy’s unhurried, quietly spoken gravitas - as if whispering long-accrued secrets of Country. Join us, on a now dry patch of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River bed, by the old Fitzroy Crossing.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded on the bed of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River at the old Fitzroy Crossing on 9 August 2023.
Title slide: Jimmy Dillon Andrews during the conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Song performed live by Jimmy Dillon Andrews.
Find more:Bungoolee Tours.
For more photos of the Martuwarra and Fitzroy Crossing, see the episode web page of ep.176 with Natalie Davey. And tune into the conversation for more on the flood and brilliant regenerative efforts.
Support the community here or here.
You can hear the conversation with Petrine McCrohan in ep.106, Therapeutic & Cultural Economies (poignantly, the cover slide photo was taken on the fallen bridge).
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
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Welcome to a very special episode, months in the making. Natalie Davey was last on the podcast nearly 2 years ago. It’s still the sixth most popular episode. Natalie is a community leader from Fitzroy Crossing, with Bunuba-Walmajarri, English and Scottish heritage. She’s a Traditional Custodian of the magnificent Martuwarra Fitzroy River. She’s also a broadcaster with the local Wangki radio, an artist, educator, and former ranger. She was the first Indigenous Chair, too, of highly respected not-for-profit Environs Kimberley – until her life was turned upside down by the worst flood event in West Australian recorded history at the start of this year.
Many will be familiar with the extraordinary unprecedented rainfall. But what you might not be familiar with is that while the water has passed, the earth has shifted. Figuratively, and literally. Some things that weren’t washed away, like the enormous Fitzroy Crossing bridge, were buried.
Coming into Fitzroy this time, we’d been wondering if there was a fuller story to tell. We found so much more than expected. Like what part our land management may have played in the damage. How community mobilised ahead of designated agencies in some crucial ways. The art and meaning that has flowed from disaster. How competing narratives confuse causes for solutions. And ultimately, how there are ways the community is responding successfully to not only the flood but, in related ways, to other issues like the youth crime waves that have been splashed across national media.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded by the Martuwarra Fitzroy River on 8 August 2023.
Title slide: Natalie Davey & Anthony James (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, from the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:You can hear Natalie from our visit 2 years ago in episode 112.
Natalie on Insta and Twitter.
Support the community here or here.
A video from the ABC’s ‘7.30 Report’, with Natalie as centrepiece.
A moving video Nat post
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The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
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A very special episode from flood-ravaged Fitzroy Crossing, with Traditional Custodian of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, Natalie Davey, has been weeks in the making and is almost finished. Stay tuned for that next week!
Today is an excerpt of episode 156 featuring the last 25 minutes or so with globally renowned writer, educator and consultant, Daniel Christian Wahl, at a very sensitive time in his life. Our conversation was ostensibly winding up, but some deep personal reflections on life, language and place, learning, schooling and parenting, and the power of transformation, gathered their own momentum.
We pick it up with Daniel’s deeply felt experience as a newcomer to his home in Mallorca (the Anne we’re talking about is mutual friend, Aboriginal elder Anne Poelina). We go on to compare notes about parenting, learning and schooling for regeneration, that went on to explore general processes of connection and transformation. And the power we scarcely realise we can access by working in these ways.
Here’s part of the blurb from the full episode:
Daniel Christian Wahl is the world-renowned author of Designing Regenerative Cultures, still being translated into various languages years after release. Daniel’s also called himself a consultant, educator, activist, speaker, blogger, weaver, catalyst - he’s also become a farmer of sorts, which you’ll hear more about today, along with some other very interesting and relevant parts of his life – like marine biology, martial arts, permaculture, his ongoing learning with elders, and how he looks to live it all, in what has become his home in Mallorca, Spain.
To hear the conversation in full, tune into episode 156, where you'll also find a few links.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded online with Daniel at home in Mallorca, on 15 March 2023.
Title slide: Daniel Christian Wahl (source).
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Support the show
The RegenNarration podcast is independent, ad-free & freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by clicking the link above or heading to our website.
Become a member to connect with your host, other listeners & other benefits, via our Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop to wave the flag. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast. It all helps.
Thanks for your support!
What a week at the regenerative agriculture conference in Margaret River. Fair to say we’re still buzzing, and recovering. More on that later. Normal podcasting will resume next week, but this week has actually been lined up for a while – in anticipation of that recovery, and the release of a very special book.
Carol Sanford’s new – and sadly last – book is out this week. It’s called No More Gold Stars: Regenerating Capacity to Think for Ourselves. You might remember her talking about it back at the start of the year in a profound 150th episode, that drew such a wave of response from so many of you.
This is an excerpt of that episode featuring the last 20 minutes or so of our conversation. We pick it up at a particularly poignant and funny moment, where Carol is talking about one of her many great success stories in engaging with business globally in education and leadership. This led to my voicing a hint of doubt about the capacity of big business to change adequately, given the way the systems and structures are oriented. I was summarily admonished, in a way I enjoyed then, and recount still.
Here’s part of the blurb from the full episode:
Starting the year with Carol Sanford feels incredibly special. She’s been at the heart of what we might call the ‘regenerative paradigm’ for decades. Friends and colleagues have spoken about her with me for years, right up until the end of last year. And last month, a previous guest and author of Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta, featured Carol on his podcast. That’s when I learned the sad news that she has only a few months to live. When I wrote to her expressing my care and respect, and to see if she’d possibly be up for a chat with another Aussie podcaster, she said sure, but ‘I am declining and so can’t wait long.’ Days later, we shared this conversation.
To hear the conversation in full tune into episode 150, A Regenerative Life: Carol Sanford on living, dying & changing paradigms, where you'll also find a few links.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on 2 February 2023.
Title slide: Carol Sanford (source: NHBSR 2019 Conference page).
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:
Carol’s new book, out 14 September 2023, No More Gold Stars: Regenerating Capacity to Think for Ourselves.
Fundraiser for Carol, with an update from Carol herself last month.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
We’ve landed in Margaret River, ahead of its major regenerative agriculture conference, with a live Q&A screening of Rachel’s Farm raising the curtain tonight. Anthony will be hosting director Rachel Ward, in conversation with another previous guest on the podcast, Jade Miles. In the film, Rachel raises the rest of the picture of regeneration – regenerating supply chains. And this is where her daughter Matilda (featuring profoundly in the film also), and her partner Scott Gooding, have taken up the mantle. Though that came after some uninterested mocking of mother, and sharing some traumatic health troubles and startling nutrition-led recoveries.
This is an excerpt of episode 169 featuring the last 25 minutes or so of our conversation, recorded at dusk on the family farm earlier this year – having recorded with Rachel for episode 168 earlier that day. We pick it up with Scott's healing journey. And follow that into the creation - and re-creation - of The Good Farm Shop.
Here’s part of the blurb from the full episode:
Join us in this heart-warming conversation with Matilda Brown, daughter of renowned actors Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward, and Scott Gooding, ‘celebrity chef’ and author of The Sustainable Diet. Together, they share their unexpected journey into the world of regenerative farming, their thoughts on food sovereignty, and how their combined passion for cooking, creativity, and healthy, sustainable living, led to the creation of the Good Farm Shop.
To hear the conversation in full, head to episode 169 (see the link below).
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on 10 April 2023.
Title slide: Matilda, Scott & Anthony (pic: Matilda Brown).
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.Find more:Tune into the full episode 169, Feeding Change: Matilda Brown & Scott Gooding's Nutrition-Led Journey to The Good Farm Shop, where you'll also find some photos and a few links.
Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River starting today – you can still get tix for the Rachel’s Farm screening on the Tuesday evening, 5 September, on that program web page.
Rachel then heads to Perth for a final WA Q&A screening of Rachel’s Farm on Thursday 7 September.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
We’re now heading south from the Kimberley towards Margaret River for the regenerative agriculture conference next week. One brilliant couple who’ll be there, and who appear in the film Rachel’s Farm being shown on the eve of the conference, is Kaycee Simuong and Tom Macindoe. This is an excerpt of episode 167 featuring the last 25 minutes or so of our conversation, recorded after visiting Rachel, up the Valley at their 400 acre farm of forest and grassland regeneration, with extraordinary market garden.
Here’s part of the blurb from the full episode:
Tom and Kaycee are descendents of Scottish highlanders and Lao rice farmers (& somewhat accidental refugees) respectively. And as it happens, Kaycee spent some formative time in the Kimberley (at Mornington) when she was 19. Now she’s with Tom running Mandarin Bend Farm, in the beautiful Nambucca Valley, Gumbaynggirr Country, on the mid-north coast of NSW. But not only that. With a bunch of neighbouring producers, they’ve gone on to start the North Arm Farms coop – a unique food to market set up, with deep community roots, stewardship ethos, and enterprise model that sends 100% of what we spend on our food directly to the farmers. This is where we pick up the conversation.
To hear the conversation in full, head to episode 167 (see the link below).
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on 11 April 2023.
Title slide: Kaycee & Tom (pic: Anthony James).
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:Tune into the full episode 167, where you'll also find some photos and a few links.
Join us at the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River next week, September 2023 – you can get tix for the Rachel’s Farm screening on the Tuesday evening, 5 September, on the program web page. Rachel will be in conversation with Anthony James and another previous guest on the podcast, Jade Miles.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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We’re back at Kachana Station this week, the site of the second most listened to episode on this podcast. And we've just recorded an update from here that will be out soon. But as recent guest Rachel Ward makes her way around the country, screening her new film and speaking with communities, news has arrived she’ll be doing likewise ahead of the major regenerative agriculture conference in Margaret River WA in a couple of weeks now. Episode 168 featured two chapters in effect – the first was with Rachel alone, and in the second we were joined by regenerative farming co-conspirator, and co-star in the film, Mick Green. This excerpt is that second chapter, recorded at Rachel’s farm earlier this year.
Here’s the opening blurb from episode 168:
Imagine transforming a cattle farm and family retreat into a carbon-sequestering biodiversity haven. What would it take? And how and why would you do it if you're a famed actress and filmmaker? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Rachel Ward, who embarked on this journey alongside former industrialised farmer and coal miner Mick Green. Their story is now the first Australian feature film on regenerative agriculture, and Rachel's first documentary. 'Rachel's Farm' has just premiered to acclaim in Sydney and Santa Barbara, and Rachel is about to tour the film around the country.
To hear the conversation in full, including ‘chapter one’ with Rachel and host Anthony, head to episode 168 (see the link below).
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on 10 April 2023.
Title slide: Rachel’s farm (pic: Anthony James).
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Find more:Tune into the full episode 168, where you'll also find some photos and a few links, including the film trailer and tour dates.
Join us at the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023 – you can get tix for the Rachel’s Farm screening on the Tuesday evening, 5 September, on the program web page. Rachel will be in conversation with Anthony James on the night, along with another previous guest on the podcast, Jade Miles.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
We’ve been recording in Fitzroy Crossing this week, and reflecting on the blessing of hearing from a number of elders here in the Kimberley. This includes one of the recordings from Fitzroy which will be out soon. And today, as we prepare to leave this permaculture paradise of recent guest, Wendy Albert, and head back to Kachana Station, it brought to mind another permaculture legend who cut her teeth here in the Kimberley – as a 15 year old jillaroo back in the ‘50s.
This is an excerpt of episode 154 with Rowe, featuring the last 20 minutes or so of our conversation. It was recorded near Fremantle WA late last year, when she was touring her new, fully revised, classic tome of the ‘90s - the Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture. It even closes with Rowe reciting some old station songs from her time in the Kimberley, before a few of her favourite people, in the Formidable Vegetable band, lend us a song to go out with (celebrating their new album launch at the time).
We pick up the conversation from where Rowe talks of permaculture needing to take next steps now – to go from being an ‘alternative’ to becoming part of the way things are generally done. She lays down the gauntlet for those who are ready to embrace a journey that explores the transformative power of permaculture and its potential to instigate systemic change. And explores how coming together with the wisdom of traditional cultures can help lead to planetary restoration.
Rowe goes on to talk about the courage of various women that have inspired her. There are tales of bravery and endurance from the Quaker women during the Vietnam War, Las Abuelas of Argentina, and the Black Sash women in Africa. We also hear about the crucial role she sees in engaging with local governments. And as we wrap up, we chat about who's taking up the mantle of Rosemary's enormous legacy, and the unique part music plays in connecting us across cultures and traditions.
To hear the conversation in full, head to episode 154 (see the link below).
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully provides greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded on 24 November 2022.
For behind the scenes footage and other benefits, including helping to keep the podcast going, please consider becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Earth People Fair, by Formidable Vegetable.
Find more:Tune into the full episode 154, where you'll also find a full transcript and additional links, including to the new book.
And if you’d like to hear that World Science Festival panel mentioned in the outro, it turned into episode 157, Regenerating Country.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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There was some big news last week. The Farmer’s Footprint Australia team announced they’ll be staging a major festival in November. It will feature the return to these shores of Zach Bush, with Charles Eisenstein beaming in online, alongside a host of brilliant Australian speakers and artists. To get us in the mood, keep the connections alive from last year’s tour, and just in case you missed it, here’s an excerpt of the last 25 minutes or so of the panel conversation that brought the house down in Byron Bay in December last year. This is Zach Bush, Ella Noah Bancroft and Tanya Massy, hosted in conversation by Anthony James.
To hear the conversation in full, head to episode 152 (see the link below).
Ella Noah Bancroft is a Bundjalung woman and founder of The Returning. Tanya Massy is a regenerative farmer and award-winning writer. You can more about Ella and Tanya at the start of the full episode 152.
And for those less familiar with Zach, he’s the highly decorated physician who’s become globally renowned for his work on the microbiome as the basis of all human and planetary health. He’s since become a co-founder of Farmer’s Footprint, a not-for-profit in the US supporting farmers who are regenerating their landscapes to produce healthy, nutrient-dense food for a healthy planet. And last year, Zach supported Blair Beattie and the growing team here, to launch Farmer’s Footprint Australia.
This part of the conversation takes an exciting turn as we explore the shift in the current paradigm. We examine what it means for companies like Nestle to be calling on Zach to help spearhead change, and how municipalities like Byron Bay could become the keystones of change in Australia. We also chat about the benefits of reconnecting with First Nations and local farmers, including via a proposed new model of farmland investment, one centered on creating diverse stewards of the land rather than corporate ownership or extraction. Finally, we bask in the healing power of nature and music. We shed light on how nature can help us understand our belief systems, express ourselves, and restore our nervous systems.
Head here for chapter markers (or to the embedded player on the episode web page), and an imperfect AI-generated transcript of this conversation.
Recorded in the Byron Bay Community Centre theatre, on 6 December 2022.
Title slide: Anthony introducing proceedings (pic: Elle Jeffrey).
See more photos of this event & behind the scenes of the tour by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.
Find more:Tune into the full episode 152, where you'll also find a few more links.
Then join us, with Zach and guests, for a major festival on 11 November 2023.
The World Science Festival panel mentioned in the outro became episode 157, Regenerating Country.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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Ten years ago now, award-winning writer and journalist, Judith Schwartz wrote the book ‘Cows Save the Planet: and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth'. Then came 'Water In Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World'. And then, a few years ago, in an extraordinary global tour of earth repair, came 'The Reindeer Chronicles: and Other Inspiring Stories of Working With Nature to Heal the Earth'. That award-winning book featured stories from Norway, Spain, Hawai’i, New Mexico, the Middle East, and Australia – Kachana Station, in fact, the 200,000 acre station in the East Kimberley that’s the subject of the 2nd most listened to episode on this podcast – and a critical flashpoint right now.
Among Judy’s stories, there’s something in particular about the one from New Mexico that stands to assist all the others, and what’s to come. It’s a story that’s shaped the next phase of Judith’s life in some ways, and is arguably the leading edge of what we need most right now. Given the stories of regeneration in every sphere are everywhere now, we can say we do broadly know what to do, and who can help the rest of us join in. So what’s stopping us? And how can we get beyond the entrenched beliefs and patterns that are holding us back?
Some of what Judy’s written up, and has gone on with personally since, is almost too amazing to be true. Indeed, as we’ve heard on this podcast recently from people like Tim Hollo, Amanda Cahill, and Katherine Trebeck, we do know of processes too, that answer those crucial questions. And one consistent thread in these processes, is how contemplating the apparently impossible can change everything. Interestingly, it’s also consistent with processes that elite athletes are increasingly engaging in. Judy calls it the approach of thinking ‘wouldn’t it be cool if …?’ And hearing how Judy’s own path of deep healing has converged with these bigger stories of regeneration, even how she’s become a black belt in her 60s, that does sound cool.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation on 28 July 2023 Australian time.
Title slide: Judith Schwartz (pic: Tony Eprile).
To see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:New York Skyline, by Brendan Eprile.
Find more:Judith Schwartz.
Community Consensus Institute.
To Which We Belong.
Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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Join us on an insightful journey with Kimberley legend Wendy Albert, a woman who's lived an extraordinary life, challenging the status quo and advocating for sustainable living. From her early years growing up on a farm in Victoria, to joining Mother Teresa's sisterhood in India, Wendy's experiences have shaped her into a fierce advocate for food security and sustainable agriculture in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and beyond.
Wendy is the owner/manager of Kimberley Cottages, and Windjana Wellness and Sustainability Services. And this is where we are blessed to be based when we’re up this way - rained upon daily by tropical fruit, veg and herbs. And inspired by this septuagenarian great grandmother enabling it all. In some ways, she’s still just gearing up, and continuing to invite others in to make more of the running on the foundations laid. But how all this came to be, is another story. Well, many!
Wendy’s ultimate migration to the Kimberley came after a chance meeting in Central Australia with the late great musician and actor Stephen ‘Baamba’ Albert. Eulogised as the ‘Patron Saint of Broome’, Stephen was a co-creator of iconic theatre and film productions like Bran Nue Dae.
All the while, Wendy herself was continuing to blaze other trails in Broome, and later here - from the phenomenal Kimberley Bookshop and Magabala Books, to a pivotal Royal Commission, and on to the transformation of a landscape and health-centered food systems over profit-driven ones. And on that, we hear how the former can have enormous effects on youth crime epidemics too, and a cautionary tone on new slogans like 'green ammonia'.
Join us at Wendy's place, on a beautiful sunny morning amidst this season’s tropical bounty.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded at Wendy’s place on 20 July 2023.
Title slide: Wendy Albert.
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page. Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Windjana Wellness & Sustainability Services (including Kimberley Cottages).
Reach out if you’re interested in this weekend’s workshop.
Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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Welcome to a new series of episodes from the Kimberley, in far north Western Australia.
First up, prepare for a transformative journey as we're joined by Manchán Magan, the acclaimed Irish travel writer, documentary maker, radio producer, theatre performer, builder of the first straw-bale house in Ireland, regenerator of the 10 acre block it stands on, and best-selling author. Manchán’s books include ‘32 Words for Field: Lost words of the Irish landscape’, which is said to have begun as a cult hit in Ireland, but has become one of its most talked-about books in recent times. And his latest book is ‘Listen to the Land Speak: A journey into the wisdom of what lies beneath us’.
Manchán masterfully delves into the wealth of knowledge encoded in ancient languages, mythology, and stories of the land. His belief in the power of this wisdom everywhere, and the urgency to understand and protect the cultures of the land – and above all, stemming from a recent visit to Australia, Aboriginal cultures - is compelling.
Remarkably for the life he’s led, Manchán says that this visit to Australia has had a greater impact on him than any other. ‘It has changed everything’, he says. And this encounter might just be changing everything for Anthony too, tapping his Irish roots, and the ancient mycelium network of language and land connecting us all.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
Recorded at 6DBY of the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation (featured in one of the most popular episodes, no. 95) on 14 July 2023.
Title slide: Manchán Magan (from his website).
Click on the photos below to zoom in, and hover over them to see captions where added.
See more photos on the episode web page, and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page. Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Manchán Magan inc. tour dates.
The Fumbally Café.
Tyson Yunkaporta on episode 70.
Margo Neale, co-curator of Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, on episode 93.
Heidi Mippy on episode 143, Visited by the Rainbow Serpent.
Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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After we finished this week's conversation with our distinguished guest, Indigenous artist and community leader, Patrick Churnside, some off-the-record yarning was also recorded. We decided to release it as a bonus 10 minute extra, given its rich and candid exchanges, which also culminated in an invitation to Roebourne. As it happens, it comes at a time when there is a wonderful position going at the Digital Lab (see the PDF file below if you're interested).
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at the Big hART Digital Lab on 6 June 2023.
Title slide: Roebourne / Ieramugadu, from the lookout Patrick talks about in the main episode (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on that main episode web page (link below), and to see more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music at the end:
Patrick tinkering on guitar before we started our conversation.
Find more:
Tune into our full conversation for episode 172, Songlines for Freedom. You'll see photos there too, and the PDF of the position description for a Digital Arts Producer (for immediate action if you're interested).
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
The north-west shelf of Western Australia is said to be where the Songlines of this continent began. No surprise then, that the people here would be showcasing and reconnecting their convergent and resurgent cultures in spectacular ways – via the media, projects and enterprises we talked about in the previous episode - and with the Songs for Freedom project.
Join us back in Roebourne / Ieramugadu with Patrick Churnside, a Traditional Custodian from the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi language groups, who is at the heart of Songs for Freedom, and so much else. Earlier this year, with a leading arts and social change organisation in Australia called Big hART, and a host of star performers from around Australia, Patrick and the community here launched the Songs for Freedom album, at the start of its ongoing national tour.
The mission and message is for us to come together to change the drastic over-incarceration of Indigenous youth and children in Australia. What's been dubbed The Freedom Collective seeks to change this story nationally, and they’re changing the story for themselves locally too. The New Roebourne project, with the support of elders, has seen many years now of strong community involvement creating music, theatre, performance and digital content.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player on the episode web page), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at the Big hART Digital Lab on 6 June 2023.
Title slide: Patrick Churnside performing Songs for Freedom in Perth / Boorloo, March 2023 (pic: Linda Dunjey).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page. Music: Sunrise Tjaabi & Sunset Tjaabi, performed live by Patrick Churnside from the Songs for Freedom album.
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Songs for Freedom project including new album and national tour dates culminating in September.
New Roebourne Project – which leads to the dedicated project website, where you can watch one of the best 2 minute videos we’ve seen.
Big hART.
Join us at the upcoming Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River, between the Songs for Freedom concert dates in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Roebourne / Ieramugadu is a small town in the Pilbara region of WA, and it’s at the heart of an extraordinary resurgence of ancient cultures that still flies largely under the radar, and in the face of ongoing threats. Part of that resurgence, and covering it, is Ngaarda Media, an independent community broadcaster and media training hub, representing and empowering the Aboriginal people(ngaarda)of the Pilbara. And heading up the organisation is Tangiora Hinaki.
Tangiora is a Māori woman who ventured from New Zealand Aotearoa to the Pilbara, where a serendipitous encounter changed the course of her life, and the media landscape in this part of the country. We talk here about her amazing story, the transformation of Ngaarda Media, the survival and revival of ancient cultures here, and the latest news on several significant breaking fronts.
This includes what’s been happening at the incredible Murujuga / Burrup Peninsula since the police raid of the Ngaarda Media house became global news in April. Just prior to the raid, Ngaarda was covering the removal of sacred rock art sites for industry expansion.
We also get the latest on where we left off with Paul Cleary, the best-selling author of Title Fight: How the Yindjibarndi Battled and Defeated a Mining Giant, as that mining giant continues to mine their land without permission or payment?
We canvas the vibe around the Voice referendum too. While exploring some of the many exceptional aspects of cultural resurgence radiating out from in and around the developing studios of Ngaarda Media.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at Ngaarda Media on 7 June 2023.
Title slide: Tangiora Hinaki just before this conversation (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page. Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Ngaarda Media.
Ep. 125 with Paul Cleary, Beyond Title Fight.
Ep. 109 with Clinton Walker, Cultural Economies.
Ep. 19 with Evan Pensini, A Global Movement Sweeping the Plains.
Join us at the upcoming Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Prepare to be moved and enlightened as we explore the transformative power of community and deliberative democracy with today's special guest, Tim Hollo. Tim is so thoroughly recasting our notions of what’s possible, through stories of what’s actually happening right now, across a host of different contexts, and with countless possibilities to go on with, that are successfully creating the democratic systems and cultures we need for widespread regeneration.
Tim Hollo is Executive Director of The Green Institute, founder of Green Music Australia, has recorded and toured globally with the FourPlay String Quartet (you’ll hear a tune from them in this episode), and he’s just written a book called ‘Living Democracy: An ecological manifesto for the end of the world as we know it’.
Our conversation delves into the power of community engagement in shaping our political systems for the better. We explore alternative governance and justice models that serve communities better, including the growing community independents movement in Australia, the incredible Kurdish example of municipalist confederalism, successful Aboriginal judicial processes, and the power of therapeutic jurisprudence.
We then examine the transformative journey of Barcelona, Participatory City in the UK, and the inspiring work of previous podcast guest Amanda Cahill (ep 134) back here in Australia, unpacking how community-led initiatives foster a sense of abundance and connection, often resulting in the disarming of racism, division and hard right votes at elections. And we wrap up with a look at deliberative democracy, its potential to reshape deeply cynical views of politics, and the promise of a more just and equitable society.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded on Little Black Mountain in Canberra on 17 April 2023.
Title slide: Tim Hollo atop Little Black Mountain just before this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Now to the Future, by FourPlay String Quartet.
Find more:The website for Tim’s book, Living Democracy: An ecological manifesto for the end of the world as we know it, including how to buy a copy, and get more involved.
Upcoming Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Can regenerative farming and a focus on nutrition truly transform our lives? Join us in this heart-warming conversation with Matilda Brown, daughter of renowned actors Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward, and Scott Gooding, celebrity chef and author of The Sustainable Diet. Together, they share their unexpected journey into the world of regenerative farming, their thoughts on food sovereignty, and how their combined passion for cooking, creativity, and healthy, sustainable living, led to the creation of the Good Farm Shop.
Family, passion, and determination play a significant role in Matilda and Scott's story. Discover how Matilda's mother, last Monday's guest Rachel Ward, infused her artistic background and love for the environment into their family farm - then into her new film about it, 'Rachel’s Farm'. We'll also explore how Matilda navigated the film industry herself, before finding a surprising calling in their evolving business. And how Scott's expertise in nutrition and holistic living, and extraordinary experience of healing from debilitating injury, has been instrumental in their journey.
Finally, listen in as we discuss the challenges and triumphs of running the Good Farm Shop, as an ethical, regenerative food business. From learning about holistic land management and meeting extraordinary farmers, to creating ready meals that nourish the body and soul, Matilda and Scott's story is a testament to the power of love, passion, and a commitment to regenerative living.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at the family farm on 10 April 2023.
With thanks to Blair Beattie from Farmers Footprint Australia for taking the driver’s seat on our journey to visit Rachel and family.
Title slide: Matilda, Scott & family (sourced from The Good Farm Shop website).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:The Good Farm Shop.
The new film Rachel’s Farm, including trailer, tour bookings, now with more info including guest panellists, and plenty to go on with.
Previous episode featuring Matilda’s mum Rachel Ward (with more photos).
Upcoming Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Imagine transforming a cattle farm and family retreat into a carbon-sequestering biodiversity haven. What would it take? And how and why would you do it if you're a famed actress and filmmaker? Join us for an inspiring conversation with Rachel Ward, who embarked on this journey alongside former industrialised farmer and coal miner Mick Green. Their story is now the first Australian feature film on regenerative agriculture, and Rachel's first documentary. 'Rachel's Farm' has just premiered to acclaim in Sydney and Santa Barbara, and Rachel is about to tour the film around the country.
The first half of this conversation is with Rachel, and for the back half, we rope in Mick. Together, they share personal stories, experiences and insights on regenerative farming, the potential for more women in it, the powerful natural events that urge us to be more conscious of what we're doing, the importance of listening to the land, indigenous knowledge systems, and the liberation of frugal living in our quest for regenerative systems.
We also talk about the implications of leasing land for regeneration, embracing variety in our produce, and how connectedness to the land and our food sources can be fostered, ultimately inspiring more of us to contribute to a regenerative future for ourselves, generations to come, and the planet as a whole.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at Rachel’s farm, on 10 April 2023.
With thanks to Blair Beattie from Farmers Footprint Australia for taking the driver’s seat on our journey south from the northern rivers, to visit Rachel & family.
Title slide: Rachel Ward driving us around her wonderfully healthy farm – with grandchild asleep at the wheel (pic: Blair Beattie).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Rachel’s Farm, including trailer, tour bookings and plenty to go on with.
The Sustainable Table report that Rachel mentioned is in episode 161. The World Science Festival panel is in episode 157. And the story of the rainbow serpent at the Haggerty farm is in episode 143.
Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
What if you could regenerate farmland and create a sustainable farming lifestyle while also building a strong community? Join Anthony as he visits Tom and Kaycee, an innovative young farming couple from the Nambucca Valley on Gumbaynggirr Country in NSW, who are doing just that. They share their remarkable journey of stewarding 400 acres of forest and grassland into a thriving regenerative farm, and founding the North Arms Farms Co-op - a unique enterprise model that sends 100% of what we spend on our food directly to the farmers.
Hear how Tom and Casey are adapting to the dramatically changing climate of the Nambucca Valley, from drought to fire and flooding, and how they're learning to build resilience in their farming practices. They also share their experience with a Myanmar agricultural cooperative founded by Burmese refugees.
In addition to their inspiring farming journey, Kaycee and Tom have established a unique seven-way partnership to manage North Arm Farms co-op. They talk about the keys to success in that model. They also talk about their vision for protecting the land, including through traditional fire management programs and conservation agreements, as well as their decision to step away from organic certification. Their delivery van carries the slogan, ‘Farm like the world depends on it’.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers, and a transcript of this conversation (please note this transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at Mandarin Bend, on 11 April 2023.
With thanks to Blair Beattie from Farmers Footprint Australia for taking the driver’s seat on our journey south from the northern rivers, to visit Tom and Kaycee.
Title slide: Tom Macindoe & Kaycee Simuong on delivery day (pic: Blair Beattie).See more photos on the episode web page, and for more from behind the scenes, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:Mandarin Bend Farm.
North Arm Farms collective.
Rachel’s Farm, final screening at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday 17 June 2023.
Tune in to my conversation with Kirsten & Serenity from the Open Food Network, the market platform North Arm Farms can be found on, for episode 126.
Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
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Uncannily our first visit to Wooleen Station in three years lands after Wooleen and Yellowstone were both spoken about in last week’s episode with Montanan stars, Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan. And when it comes to shifting the sense of what’s possible, this 375,000 acre property 700 kilometres from Perth WA is taking this to new levels, as the regeneration of country, community and culture continues to generate its own momentum. A number of long-held visions are currently coming to fruition, including with young dingo educator and researcher, Zali Jestrimski.
Zali’s now at the helm of a new dingo education centre at Wooleen, and some potentially game-changing research. What if it can be shown, as David suspects, that the dingoes of the Murchison region here, are having an even greater regenerative impact than the famed wolves of Yellowstone?
This conversation was recorded at Wooleen Homestead, on Wednesday 24 May 2023.
Title slide: Zali Jestrimski & David Pollock with Steve the dingo, at Wooleen Station (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode web page, and for more behind the scenes stuff, become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:Wooleen Station.
To hear more from David Pollock, tune into episode 111.
To listen to David’s wife, Frances Pollock, back when this podcast began, tune into episode 9.
Join me at the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
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You don’t need to have heard last week’s episode with Nicole Masters and Meagan Lannan to listen to this one, but they certainly go together. After I was fortunate to have been welcomed in to Nicole’s intensive 4-day course near Orange in Australia last month, I was moved to conduct a kind of exit poll with a half dozen people. It wasn’t planned, so I just pulled out the lapel mic’s I always have with me for such occasions, plugged them into the phone, contemplated dealing with some breeze and departing traffic, and nabbed a few willing souls as they passed. And I was so glad I did.
The last few of the six people you’ll hear from, I hadn’t met before. The first two, I’d met at the Convergence conference staged by RCS Australia in Brisbane last July. And the 3rd, as you’ll hear, I met only six months prior at the Haggerty farm here in WA.
What I heard from them felt like another chapter in my observations of paradigm change happening in people wherever I go right now - and across different walks of life. And sure enough, here I was at an agriculture course, but what’s being said and felt largely applies to everything. You could even say it feels like a resurgence of some deep traditions of culture that for a while we’d lost touch with.
My guests are:
- Dave Murphy from Farmer’s Footprint Australia
- Stacey Curcio from Cultivating Wellness, and also the daughter of Terry and Pam McCosker, founders of RCS Australia
- Emily Alexander, who happened to be at the Haggerty farm for the event that became episodes 142 and 143.
- Missy, a young home-school student who is running her own profitable business called The Cow Whisperer
- Rachael Treasure, best-selling novelist (including her most recent book that was inspired by the Haggerty’s)
- Jake Chandler, who stopped the room with one of his comments, which we talk about here.
This conversation was recorded near Orange NSW, on 15 April 2023.
Title slide: A view from the back of the room during the course (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos including behind the scenes bybecoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:To hear from Nicole herself, tune into the previous episode 164, on training the wayfinders (you’ll see a few links there for more info too, along with some photos).
Join me at the Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
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Nicole Masters is a globally recognised agroecologist, speaker and author of the book ‘For the Love of Soil’. Meagan Lannan is an award-winning rancher at Barney Creek Livestock in Montana, within the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Nicole and Meagan toured two sold out education programs in Australia last month. First up, 126 people convened for 4 days near the town of Orange, and I was fortunate to be welcomed along for the ride.
It was actually Nicole’s first time back in Australia since her scheduled book tour of 55 dates was cancelled due to covid. We last spoke for the podcast during that time in 2020, when Nicole was in the midst of her own transformations. A few years on, and this program is touring the world, with its focus on training the wayfinders in regenerative soil, systems and life-giving practice. No surprise in that sense, we end up talking polyvagal theory, regenerative finance, shifting consciousness, the education processes that cultivate all that, and a bit of song and dance.
This conversation was recorded at Tombarra near Braidwood in NSW, on 22 April 2023.
Title slide: Nicole Masters & Meagan Lannan riverside at Tombarra (pic: Anthony James).
See more photos on the episode webpage below, and for more behind the scenes pics become a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Find more:Integrity Soils.
For more with Nicole Masters (including other links, and photos on the episode web page), listen to episode 72, Restoring the Metropolis of Living Earth: From the chemical paradigm to nature’s paradigm, with Nicole Masters.
Barney Creek Livestock, where Meagan, Pete and family live.
To Which We Belong, the film that Nicole and Meagan feature in.
The short video with Meagan & family on winning the Aldo Leopold award.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
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Jeff Pow is at the helm of an extraordinary story of regeneration. You might remember Jeff and his wife Michelle McManus from episode 78, when I first visited them at Southampton Homestead back at the end of 2020. (They were also later highlighted among some globally esteemed names in the acknowledgements of Paul Hawken’s book Regeneration.) Since then, I’d been seeing the land there go from strength to strength. And I’d been hearing about how their pasture-raised poultry (as distinct from so-called free-range), and their micro-processing systems, were now enabling regional regeneration – of country, community and economy. Even in the face of COVID, more fires, and still finding themselves constantly on the brink of folding.
Attempts and experiments with partners to create market systems that get us eaters this nutritious, cruelty-free and regenerative food, and these farmers a livelihood, maybe even the means to do more of their great work, aren’t working. This is still too often the missing piece, it seems. So what shift in lens, and systems, can bring us all together in these situations, to enable the regeneration I’m seeing at Southampton and elsewhere, to happen everywhere?
We start in space, believe it or not. Then come back to earth with how torturously chicken appears in supermarkets, but how brilliantly it happens here. And how it all hinges on the possibilities we explore next.
This chat was recorded at Southampton Homestead near Balingup WA on 30 April 2023.
Title slide: Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus at Southampton.
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Southampton Homestead.
Dirty Clean Food’s terrific profile page on Jeff and Michelle’s operation.
Dirty Clean Food’s online shop for pasture-raised poultry, including from Southampton (it looks like hovering over the pictures brings up the Southampton logo when it’s from there).
For more with Jeff Pow & Michelle McManus (including other links, and photos on the episode web page), listen to episode 78.
And to listen to Jeff with Yeshe, tune into Yeshe Interviews, for Earth & space & chickens & how they’re all connected.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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This is a special release episode with Tim Winton, broadly considered the preeminent Australian writer of his generation. And not just in Australia. His books have been translated into 28 languages, sold millions of copies, and resulted in numerous prestigious awards (including another one just this week). He’s also in the Australian Surfing Awards Hall of Fame, and has a species of native Australian fish named in his honour. But over the last few years, we were aware Tim had jumped in the deep end as writer, narrator and executive producer of a major film production.
Ningaloo Nyinggulu surfaced at a community screening in Exmouth a few days ago, and will premiere nationwide in Australia on Tuesday 16 May, having also just launched globally as Ningaloo Nyinggulu: Australia’s Ocean Wonder.
The blurb reads: ‘Over three episodes filmed in remote Western Australia, Tim shares the wonders of the place that has inspired his work for decades, joining Traditional Owners, scientists and other experts to understand how Ningaloo endures as a mighty global lifeboat of biodiversity, and showcases why it is a beacon of hope in the face of an extinction crisis and climate emergency.’
This story is grounded in rich cultural heritage dating back more than 40,000 years, in a place that colonial Australia had once destined to be little more than a quarry and oilfield. Over 2000 hours of footage was shot over a 2-year period for this, portraying the extraordinary resurgence of culture and country happening here.
You’ll also hear some of the wonderful soundtrack from the film, in this episode.
This conversation was recorded on 5 May 2023.
Title slide: Tim releasing a very eager rescued turtle (from the film).
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
The Sargassum piece, by Ash Gibson Greig, off the soundtrack for Ningaloo Nyinggulu, with the kind permission of Artemis Media and the artist.
Find more:Watch the trailer of Ningaloo Nyinggulu. It premieres in Australia on the ABC from Tuesday 16 May 2023. The global release can be streamed on Love Nature & Sky Nature.
Tim’s national tour dates, starting Saturday 13 May in Victoria (all shows sold out except for Kyneton on Saturday night – waiting lists available in some cases).
Join in the Protect Ningaloo campaign.
For more with Tim Winton, listen to episode 81.
And to hear more about the archaeological work, listen to episode 83 with Peter Veth.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
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In last week’s episode, we heard from Dr Katherine Trebeck on the latest significant developments in the domain of wellbeing, regenerative or just plain good economics. You might remember Katherine alluded to a brilliant conversation she had been part of a few days prior, for the launch of a major new report and project by not-for-profit outfit, Sustainable Table.
Regenerative farmer and award-winning writer, Tanya Massy, is the lead author of that report, part of an all-star team frankly, including a number of past guests on this podcast. And on this day, she and Katherine were joined by two truly trailblazing international guests, CEO of Cienaga Capital, Esther Park, and CEO of Steward, Dan Miller. With an opening statement from Wiradjuri man and director at Black Duck Foods, Joshua Staines.
3.00 - Anthony setting the scene
7.20 - Panel conversation
56.30 - Tanya Massy re a stand out case study from the report, leading into audience questions
83.50 - Tanya’s closing words including how we can each engage from here.Head here for automatic cues to those chapter markers.
This conversation was recorded online with live audience on 20 April 2023.
Title slide: A screen shot of the panel and some of the Sustainable Table team on the day (L-R: CEO Jade Miles, Megan O’Malley, Kristie Van de Velde, Anthony James, Tanya Massy, Katherine Trebeck, Jess Eddy, Esther Park, Justin Wolfgang, Hayley Morris, Dan Miller).
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Sustainable Table web version of the report.
Hear more from Tanya Massy on episode 115, Serenity Hill on episode 126, and Jade Miles on episode 128.
And you can hear a very special conversation with Carol Sanford on episode 150.
Watch the launch of Sustainable Table’s major new report on Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming, which includes the presentations of Sustainable Table Chair Hayley Morris, and lead author Tanya Massy, at the outset.
Have your say in the Australian government’s Measuring what matters, second consultation process, ending 26 May 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
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Dr Katherine Trebeck helps make sense of the state of our economy, amidst recurrent gloomy global forecasts, and stark reports about what’s really driving such drastic inflation and inequality. All that informs the back half of our chat on some recent significant global shifts towards economies that make more sense here and now, and that are inherently designed to work well for people and planet.
This includes an opportunity to get involved here in Australia, with our federal government’s current initiative, and last week’s major project launch by the Sustainable Table team. And we look at some of the stories that are really blazing the trail - beyond profit, financial returns and GDP.
Dr Katherine Trebeck is co-founder of the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance and the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments. Now back in Australia, Katherine is also a senior advisor for The Next Economy (featured in episode 134 of the podcast), and co-author of The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown Up Economy.This conversation was recorded in Canberra on 23 April 2023.
Title slide: Katherine Trebeck, just as we were about to record.See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Katherine’s website.
Hear more from Katherine on episode 99, and more of her life story on episode 29.
Have your say in the Australian government’s Measuring what matters, second consultation process, ending 26 May 2023.
Join us at a mini-festival with community forum hosted by Anthony James this Sunday 7 May.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
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Last week's episode with Dr Alessandro Pelizzon contained a series of global paradigm shifting updates in its last 15 minutes or so. So this week's release is an excerpt of that part of the episode, in case you missed it.
We pick up our conversation at the back half of Alessandro's announcement that he is co-founding a new place of education – akin to the Schumacher College in the UK - offering more of the education we need in these times. And we go on to the rapid developments around the world in the Rights of Nature, along with the recent rescinding by the Pope of the Doctrine of Discovery (if you don't know how significant that is, Alessandro explains).
Title slide: a view of the northern rivers region of NSW, where this conversation took place (pic: Anthony James).
Find more:
Tune into the full episode 159, where you'll also find a few links.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
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I met up with Dr Alessandro Pelizzon at his place in Byron Bay, for a long-awaited chat on some of the extraordinary work he’s been doing, outside his day job, on the immense value, almost unbelievable collapse, and opportunity for renewal of the public university as one of our oldest and grandest Western institutions. And there’s been a host of global paradigm shifting developments since we last spoke 18 months or so ago, in the domain of his day job (including just days ago with the Pope’s rescinding of the Doctrine of Discovery). Along with his co-founding of a new place of education – offering more of the education we need in these times.
Dr Alessandro Pelizzon is an Associate Professor in Law at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He is a co-founder and Executive Committee Member of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, the current Director of its International Academic Hub, and an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature programme. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging discourse on rights of nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception. And his book on all this will be published soon, titled Ecological Jurisprudence: Law, Representation and Environmental Metaphysics.
This conversation was recorded at Alessandro’s home just outside of Byron Bay NSW, on 2 April 2023.
Title slide: Alessandro at home after our conversation.
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:The sounds of the Byron Bay hinterland.
Find more:Alessandro Pelizzon on LinkedIn.
Academics for Public Universities.
Public Universities Australia.
Resonant Earth.
Hear more of Alessandro on the rapid rise of ‘earth laws’ in episode 97, from the Kimberley (and on a panel featuring Michael Leunig, Kate Auty and Nicola Rivers for episode 71).
Upcoming launch of Sustainable Table report on Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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I headed out of Brisbane this week to Camp Mountain, to learn about some of the regenerative work being done around there. One of the outstanding places I visited nearby was where Loop Growers happens. Alice Star and Phil Garozzo, hairdresser and marketing graduate respectively, are its founders.
They call it a ‘bio-intensive market garden’, which produces a wide range of chemical free fruit and veg that feeds their growing community of households and local businesses. The loop they refer to comprises 15 cafes, restaurants, bars and brewers who provide their excess organic materials (read, not waste) to feed the worms at the farm, which the farm in turn, cycles back as fresh produce. A functional loop at one level, and at another, a paradigm change in the heart of the places we gather.
With tiny houses, event space and seed bank also emerging onsite, that initial loop is just the start of it. Though it could also have been the end, as the biblical-scale floods of last year almost wiped them out entirely. How this community is rebounding together says so much about what’s possible everywhere.
This conversation was recorded at Loop Grower in the Samford Valley around 30 kilometres outside of Brisbane, on 31 March 2023.
Title slide: Phil & Alice by the creek where we had our conversation.
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:No Such Thing As Waste, by Formidable Vegetable.
Find more:Loop Growers.
Broadsheet piece with a series of photos at Loop Growers from before and after the flood.
Bush Tekniq.
Upcoming launch of Sustainable Table report on Regenerating Investment in Food & Farming.
GoFundMe page set up by the family of Carol Sanford (our guest in ep 150).
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
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Yesterday I hosted a yarn with two brilliant First Nations guests at the World Science Festival in Brisbane, to discuss 'the rise of regenerative agriculture, the intersection with First Nations Knowledges, and the synergies for a harmonious and sustainable future on earth'.Barkandji woman Zena Cumpston (aka Zena Sky Ranger)is a writer, researcher and story-teller who has also curated some exceptional exhibitions including Emu Sky. She is passionate about plants, particularly the many ways they elucidate the ingenuity and scientific knowledge of her people. Indeed, Zena has co-authored a new book called Plants: Past, Present & Future – the latest in the First Knowledges series – that featured in Booktopia’s ‘best non-fiction’ list for 2022. Her writing also appears in the extraordinary anthology Unlimited Futures, and in the Federal Government's pivotal 2021 State of the Environment Report.
Jacob Birch is a self-described native grains die-hard. He’s an academic, entrepreneur and Churchill Fellow who is working towards reawakening and restoring the grassland foodways that sustained his Gamilaraay ancestors for thousands of generations. Walking within and between many convergent spaces, including lecturing in regenerative agriculture, Jacob is helping to reignite the native grain economy, led by First Nations people, for the benefit of all people. He has just led a national consultation and authored the Australian Native Grains Strategic Plan. And works with the Yunus Centre to develop innovative business frameworks for the native grain industry.
This conversation was recorded live at the World Science Festival Brisbane, in the Cremorne Theatre at QPAC, on 26 March 2023.
Title slide: Zena, Anthony & Jacob against the backdrop of one of the native grain farms Jacob talks about, that was the cover image for the event.
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Meanjin Sunrise, by local Aboriginal artists, played as we got ready to take to the stage.
Find more:Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
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Daniel Christian Wahl is the world-renowned author of Designing Regenerative Cultures, still being translated into various languages years after release. Daniel’s also called himself a consultant, educator, activist, speaker, blogger, weaver, catalyst - he’s also become a farmer of sorts, which you’ll hear more about today, along with some other very interesting and entirely relevant parts of his life – like marine biology, martial arts, permaculture, his ongoing learning with elders, and how he looks to live it all, in what has become his home in Mallorca, Spain.
Daniel's blog on Medium is followed by over 25,000 people, and his online advocacy has a combined audience of over 850,000 people around the world. He was an RSA Bicentenary Medal recipient for Regenerative Design in 2021, a Volans Fellow in 2022, and was previously the Director of Findhorn College.
Daniel actually first reached out to me a few years ago, with kind words after my conversation with the late Hazel Henderson, someone we both admired a lot. And for him, as for many, the years since have included some tumult and burn out. All of which made this a doubly cherished conversation, as Daniel talks publicly in a way he never has before, in a moment of great reflection about the state of things and how to approach it.
This conversation was recorded online with Daniel at home in Mallorca, on 15 March 2023.
Title slide: Daniel Christian Wahl in the Tramuntana mountains near Lluc (source).
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Daniel’s highly acclaimed book, translated into multiple languages, Designing Regenerative Cultures.
Daniel with Satish Kumar on his YouTube channel recently.
Daniel’s ongoing writing on Medium.
Join me with special guests at Regenerating Country, this weekend, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 26 March 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
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Mid-last year I accompanied film-maker Damon Gameau as he toured his film Regenerating Australia around WA. We were with Di Haggerty and Heidi Mippy which became ep122 from the Leederville screening, and in ep131 I hosted student Kate Fenech in Busselton. Well, there were two other event conversations on that tour that Damon hosted with other local guests, and they were exceptional. And as I listened back to the one from Margaret River this week, I thought this has just got to go out.
So conversing with Damon, you’ll hear the former international sports star, Amy Steel, whose career was ended by a near-fatal heat stroke. And since then, she has dedicated her life to working with business and First Nations communities on cultural and climate matters. She’s currently the WA Leader | Decarbonisation and Climate risk at Engie, and in the process of moving to the new Witchcliffe Ecovillage near Margaret River.
Alongside Amy is Wadandi Bibulmun man, Zac Webb. Born in Undalup (Busselton), Zac grew up on Wadandi Boodja (Country) listening to his Great Grandmother, Grandparents and his Father Dr Wayne ‘Wonitji’ Webb. Zac is highly respected in his work with Elders and Custodians, giving the wider community a better understanding of Cultural Protocols, and their Connection and Responsibilities to the Boodja that we all share together.
3.30 Damon sets the scene
8.45 Panel starts
21.55 Audience question on fire
29.08 On shared local knowledge working with bureaucracies
31.58 On understanding biodiversity - in numbers or knowledge of place
36.48 Young person on the sustainability of drones for planting trees
37.42 On the mining rush for minerals for renewables
38.42 Young person on how to make the film’s vision a reality
41.55 Damon on what we can do including some funding opportunities
This conversation was recorded at the HEART Centre in Margaret River, on 17 May 2022.
Title slide: Redgate Beach, near the Witchcliffe Ecovillage and the town of Margaret River (pic: Anthony James, just before the event).
See more photos including behind the scenes by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Micro Biome, by Formidable Vegetable.
Find more:Regenerating Australia film on The Regenerators website.
Zac Webb (and his father Wayne).
Hear more from Amy on episode 73, The Biggest Sports Story.
Regenerators film ‘What is Regeneration?’
Join me at Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 26 March 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
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For over 40 years, Rosemary Morrow has travelled the world, blazing a pioneering trail teaching permaculture as a tool for restoration. From Vietnam and Cambodia, to Greece, West Africa, and Australia, her at times death-defying journey has helped countless communities in all sorts of situations restore healthy living systems. And it was arguably all set in tow when, at the age of 15, she ventured solo to the Kimberley here in WA.
This is a conversation Rowe’s not accustomed to having, but she was customarily fearless in having it. And for me, it continues a kind of accidental series with women elders. One I’m finding to be a great gift. In this case, Rowe was kind enough to spend some time with me on a visit back to where she grew up, here in Perth. She was touring her new book, a revised and updated edition of her classic Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture – now called the Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture.
It’s been endorsed by the UN as part of this Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, has a foreword by Vandana Shiva, and throws down the gauntlet for what’s still to be done.
This conversation was recorded at Ecoburbia, just south of Walyalup / Fremantle, on 24 November 2022.
Title slide: Rosemary Morrow (pic: Permatil Global).
See more photos including behind the scenes bybecoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:
Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Earth People Fair, by Formidable Vegetable.
Find more:
Rosemary’s book, Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture.
Enter the draw for a gift pack of books from Melliodora Publishing, including Rosemary’s new one.
Join me at Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 26 March 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Neeve Blackham-Jennings is a school student who wrote and illustrated what ‘accidentally’ became an award-winning book when she was fifteen. It’s a story that hoped to change a story – the story of Australia’s most endangered reptile, the Western Swamp Tortoise. But that’s not the half of it.
Last September’s Quantum Words Festival in Perth opened with Schools Day. I was fortunate to host Bruce Pascoe later in the day, which you may have heard on episode 140. But opening the festival was this session, featuring Neeve alongside a couple of brilliant women whose chance encounters with Neeve continue to reverberate, as they work to bring this species back from the brink of extinction.
Mandy Bamford is an ecologist and environmental communicator, fascinated by innovative ways to engage people with nature. And Nicki Mitchell is an award-winning tertiary educator and Associate Professor of Conservation Biology at UWA.
Their work includes the rehabilitation of wetland habitats, and the translocation of zoo-bred animals to nature reserves – joining forces with passionate community members, including young people like Neeve, to enable more positive stories of change. We talk about all this, and related topics of voting age, media and more, with some terrific student questions.
24.00 - Q&A starts with Lyn Beazley AO, on the effect of global warming ‘feminising’ the genders of many species
24.45 - Student question on the ethics of species translocation
26.00 - Question on some of the pioneers in this space
27.45 - Anthony asks Neeve her thoughts on the voting age
28.55 - Student question on how literature can affect social issues besides conservation
31.30 - Student question on other endangered species like the numbats
32.30 - Anthony asks if anyone’s studying journalism - and what we need and might do in media
35.50 - Student question on what’s driven the Western Swamp Tortoise decline
This conversation was recorded in the theatre at John Curtin College of the Arts in Walyalup/Fremantle, on 16 September 2022.
Title slide: Nicki Mitchell, Mandy Bamford & high school student Neeve Blackham-Jennings (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See more photos of this & other events including some behind the scenes stuff by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:The event website, for the Quantum Words Festival Perth 2022 (inc. more info on each guest).
Buy a copy of Neeve’s book, Wally’s Way Home.
And on that new global news literacy project I mentioned, tune in to episode 133 ‘You Are What You Read’, with Jodie Jackson (links in the show notes).
Join me at Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 26 March 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Zach Bush toured in Australia in December last year. This event, in Byron Bay, sold out in a matter of hours. So a humming full house of 250+ people filled the local theatre for Zach’s rousing keynote, and this subsequent panel conversation. The two women joining Zach and myself for this were Bundjalung woman and founder of The Returning, Ella Noah Bancroft, and regenerative farmer and award-winning writer, Tanya Massy.
You’ll hear me introduce Ella and Tanya in a bit more detail on the night. And for those less familiar with Zach, he’s the highly decorated physician who’s become globally renowned for his work on the microbiome as the basis of all human and planetary health. He’s since become a co-founder of Farmer’s Footprint, a not-for-profit in the US supporting farmers who are regenerating their landscapes to produce healthy, nutrient-dense food for a healthy planet.
And last year, Zach supported Blair Beattie and the growing team here, to launch Farmers Footprint Australia. This tour was its first big national splash. And there was no shortage of big breakthroughs to dive into as our conversation evolved, in what became a highlight of highlights on tour.
This conversation was recorded in the Byron Bay Community Centre theatre, on 6 December 2022.Title slide: Zach Bush delivering his keynote before this panel conversation (pic: Elle Jeffrey).
See more photos of this event & behind the scenes of the tour by becoming a subscriber via the Patreon page.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Farmer’s Footprint Australia.
Film of this event including Zach’s keynote – podcast subscribers can get 25% off the purchase of this film via the Patreon page.
To hear more of Zach, including his fascinating back story, listen to episode 62.
Join me at Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane on 26 March 2023.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Over the last couple of years Damon Gameau, the brilliant Aussie film-maker behind Regenerating Australia, 2040, That Sugar Film and Animal Beatbox, has joined me at this time to take a look at the year ahead. Last year happened to land on Valentine’s Day. So while Damon’s giving himself and his family some well-earned dedicated time right now, it gives me the chance to share this unique event with you.
This was a Town Hall dialogue that followed a community screening of Regenerating Australia, in Beverley, in the wheat belt of WA. Local woman Claire Broun & husband Martin brought together a rare and powerful line up, featuring prominent local Noongar man Oral McGuire, nearby regenerative farmers Di & Ian Haggerty, locally engaged landscape architect and rural planner Grant Revell, and Damon online from the other side of the country. Yours truly was host.
We start with a profound Welcome to Country by Oral, before I introduce our guests, and later our audience. With love.
3.20 Oral
7.20 Panel conversation
24.50 Audience gets involved
This conversation was recorded in the Beverley Town Hall, with Damon appearing online from home in New South Wales, on 17 June 2022.Title slide: Damon Gameau (on screen), Anthony James, Grant Revell, Ian & Di Haggerty, Oral McGuire - & Claire Broun managing the stage (pic: Martin Pell).
See more photos of this event & behind the scenes by becoming a supporting listener on our Patreon page.Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Regenerating Australia – community film screenings are available.
To hear more of Di & Ian Haggerty, with another unique line up out at their place, tune into episode 142.
Join me at Regenerating Country, a live podcast conversation at the World Science Festival Brisbane.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Starting the year with Carol Sanford feels incredibly special. She’s been at the heart of what we might call the ‘regenerative paradigm’ for decades. Friends and colleagues have spoken about her with me for years, right up until the end of last year. And last month, a previous guest and author of Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta, featured Carol on his podcast. That’s when I learned the sad news that she has only a few months to live. When I wrote to her expressing my care and respect, and to see if she’d possibly be up for a chat with another Aussie podcaster, she said sure, but ‘I am declining and so can’t wait long.’ Days later, we shared this conversation.
Carol is Executive Producer at The Regenerative Business Summit, 5x TEDx presenter, and a highly awarded best-selling author of six books – currently writing her seventh. Carol launched two startups, ran and sold them, then turned to educating businesses globally, from big companies like Google and DuPont, to ‘new economy businesses’, as she puts it, ‘developing leaders toward the business of the 21st Century, with individuals who want a Regenerative Paradigm education’. Rebecca Henderson from Harvard Business School said Carol "created an approach that reimagines business. Her approach will be The Future of Business."
But all that’s just the touching the surface. This is a deeply cherished conversation about Carol’s regenerative life.
This conversation was recorded online with Carol at home in Seattle and Anthony in Perth on 2 February 2023 (Australian time).Title slide: Carol Sanford.
Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Carol’s website.
Carol Sanford Institute.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Starting the year with Carol Sanford feels incredibly special. She’s been at the heart of what we might call the ‘regenerative paradigm’ for decades. Friends and colleagues have spoken about her with me for years, right up until the end of last year. And last month, a previous guest and author of Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta, featured Carol on his podcast. That’s when I learned the sad news that she has only a few months to live. When I wrote to her expressing my care and respect, and to see if she’d possibly be up for a chat with another Aussie podcaster, she said sure, but ‘I am declining and so can’t wait long.’ Days later, we shared this conversation.
Carol is Executive Producer at The Regenerative Business Summit, 5x TEDx presenter, and a highly awarded best-selling author of six books – currently writing her seventh. Carol launched two startups, ran and sold them, then turned to educating businesses globally, from big companies like Google and DuPont, to ‘new economy businesses’, as she puts it, ‘developing leaders toward the business of the 21st Century, with individuals who want a Regenerative Paradigm education’. Rebecca Henderson from Harvard Business School said Carol "created an approach that reimagines business. Her approach will be The Future of Business."
But all that’s just the touching the surface. This is a deeply cherished conversation about Carol’s regenerative life.
This conversation was recorded online with Carol at home in Seattle and Anthony in Perth on 2 February 2023 (Australian time).Music:Regeneration, by Amelia Barden, off the soundtrack for the film Regenerating Australia.
Find more:Carol’s website.
Carol Sanford Institute.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Our last summer flashback ‘episode that people still talk to me about’ is episode 9, with Frances Pollock (nee Jones). Frances and David Pollock became nationally famous about a decade ago now, for ‘destocking’ the 375,000-acre Wooleen Station in the Murchison region of Western Australia. That was step one in what has become an extraordinary story of regeneration, increasingly reverberating far beyond Wooleen. David’s since been on the podcast a few times, and Frances continues to be recognised and awarded for her work in the region.
I also look back on this episode as a huge turning point for me and my family. This was the first episode out on Country, connecting directly with food and agricultural systems. I was set on a path of understanding regeneration, Country, agriculture, food and all other systems at greater depth, in the lived realities of people’s lives, in their places.
And while David Pollock was still a bit shy at this stage, at least with this bloke he’d never heard of, thankfully Frances wasn’t! And the names she sent us on our way with set up a transformative journey around Australia in 2018 that gave birth to The RegenNarration and everything it’s become to date.
This is an excerpt featuring the last 25 minutes or so of our conversation at the Wooleen Homestead. It picks up with their initial harrowing experiments with letting dingoes roam wild on the property. And on to another harrowing experiment with the bank as they were on the cusp of foreclosure, before the Australian public rallied behind them. We close with the Native Title judgement delivered at Wooleen, and all that might mean.
This conversation was recorded in late 2017.Title slide: Frances Pollock (pic: Olivia Cheng) – the full photo (with Anthony in it) is on the episode website.
Music:Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Find more:Read a transcript of our full conversation on the episode web page.
Hear the rest of our conversation back in episode 9.
Hear more of Frances with David and Charlie Massy on episode 16.
And hear more from David (eventually) on episodes 44, 66 & 111 (what’s with the repeating numbers?!) – episode 111 has links to all the others, and more.
Wooleen Station.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Our next episode from the archives that people still talk to me about is episode 3, with Kate Raworth. She’s the best-selling author of Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist. And the instigator of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), helping put it into practice in communities everywhere.
This is an excerpt of the first 20 minutes or so our conversation just a couple of months after the book came out. And this release comes just a week after the launch in Oxford of Doughnut Economics Live, a free course for all economics students in the city who want to think like 21st century economists.
Kate said last week: “It's time for every university's economics curriculum to address the world's extraordinary and extreme realities.” And “We have had to change venues three times to accommodate all the students applying to join the course - now it's in the biggest lecture theatre available in the university and it's oversubscribed. Students demand and deserve change.”
You can hear more on the global student revolt that was kicking into gear in the last decade, and has continued to pick up since, in the rest of our conversation (link below).
Here, we kick off on with the shift in thinking involved, and how to communicate and practice it. Then it’s onto Kate’s journey, and how she came to this concept that took off around the world.
Interestingly, Kate brings up the work of George Lakoff, on the metaphors we live by – which used to be the primary text for the postgraduate students in sustainability that Frank Fisher and I worked with.
We close here with how we might go beyond growth and GDP as proxies for society’s progress, towards tracking what’s actually important to us.
This conversation was recorded in June 2017.
Title slide: Kate Raworth (pic: Roman Krznaric).
Music:43, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more:Read a transcript of the full conversation on the episode website.
Hear the rest of our conversation back in episode 3. We go on to talk more about the practicalities of change, the student revolt that has only continued to grow since this conversation, and how we can go about the shift in thinking and acting in our own lives.
Kate’s website & book.
Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL).
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
A warm welcome to the new year. We’ll resume normal transmission of the podcast in February. But to gear us up, I thought to release a summer flashback or two, delving way back in the archives to episodes that people still speak to me about today.
First up is an excerpt from the very first episode I recorded, with John Fullerton. He’s the former Wall Street executive who left that life, and through a fascinating personal journey ended up founding the non-profit Capital Institute, dedicated to bringing about new, regenerative economic and financial systems.
We had this conversation back in 2017, but it’s lost none of its currency, and gives wonderful context to the growing influence and activity of the Capital Institute today, and the movement as a whole.
Note: Enrolments are now open for the third running of the flagship course of the Capital Institute: Introduction to Regenerative Economics (featuring a number of guests from this podcast).
More on John Fullerton: John’s work draws deeply on systems thinking, a broad range of other contemporary and ancient schools of thought, and a range of ‘real world’ case studies, impact investing and other experiments on the ground. All this features in his extensive speaking and writing, including in his booklet, Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy.
This conversation was recorded in May 2017.Title slide image: John Fullerton.
Music:43, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more:Read a transcript of the full conversation on the episode website.
Hear the rest of our conversation, including more on the role of big business and other business structures, in the last 10 minutes or so of episode 1.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to the Support page on The RegenNarration website.
You can become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners & receive other benefits, directly via the Patreon page.
Visit The RegenNarration shop. And please keep sharing, rating & reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
This is our customary sign-off episode for the year – a package of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2022, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country you heard along the way. Here’s the ‘track list’: 1. Jess Beckerling (ep 105)2. To A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper (sourced from the Free Music Archive) – podcast intro3. To The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, then ...4. Flamenco Rhythm, by Sunsearcher (sourced from the Free Music Archive) – Petrine McCrohan (ep 106)5. Di Haggerty (ep 107), including ... 6. To Rockin’ in the 80s, by Dr Sparkles (sourced from the Free Music Archive)7. To Regeneration, by Amelia Barden - Damon Gameau (ep 108), Clinton Walker (ep 109)8. Kate Chaney (ep 110)9. To Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp - Kate Chaney (ep 110), David Pollock (ep 111)10. David Pollock11. Natalie Davey (ep 112), including ...12. To You Shine, by the kids with Tura Music 13. María Inés Cuj & Rony Lec (ep 113)14. To Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae – Cathy McGowan (ep 114), Tanya Massy (ep 115)15. Tanya Massy16. Louise O’Neill (ep 116)17. Eugene Eades including his song – Looking Back to Yesterday Again, performed with Bruce Anthony (ep 117)18. Agostino Petroni (ep 118)19. To Temporary, by Yen Nguyen – Kim Paul Nguyen (ep 119)20. Tony Rinaudo (ep 120)21. Kate Chaney MP (ep 121)22. Ode to Kate, by your podcast host (ep 121 Extra)23. Damon Gameau, at a screening of Regenerating Australia (ep 122)24. Fred Provenza (ep 123)25. To Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp – Jane Slattery (ep 124), Paul Cleary (ep 125)26. Serenity Hill with Kirsten Larsen (ep 126)27. To a tune by Jeremiah Johnson – Ian Congdon & Courtney Young near Rutherglen, Victoria (ep 127), Jade Miles near Stanley, Victoria (ep 128)28. To Cycles, by Simon Edwards – the late Hazel Henderson (ep 129), Valerie Brown at home in Canberra (ep 130)29. Kate Fenech at a screening of Regenerating Australia in Busselton WA (ep 131)30. Kristy Stewart at the family farm in the Otways, Victoria (ep 132)31. Jodie Jackson (ep 133)32. Amanda Cahill at home in Brisbane (ep 134)33. Ross O’Reilly at High Valley Dawn, Yeppoon, Central Queensland (ep 135)34. Terry & Pam McCosker at home in Yeppoon (ep 136)35. Robert Pekin at the Food Connect Shed in Brisbane (ep 137)36. Matthew Evans by the Swan River / Derbal Yerrigan (ep 138)37. Douglas Rushkoff (ep 139)38. Bruce Pascoe live at the Quantum Words Festival on Schools Day in Walyalup / Fremantle (ep 140)39. Oral McGuire, Greg Mullins & Lesley Head live at the Quantum Words Festival in Boorloo / Perth (ep 141)40. Ian & Di Haggerty live in their shearing shed (ep 142)41. Heidi Mippy later in that shed(ep 143)42. To The Deep Ocean is Calling, composed by Eva Holm Foosnæs with lyrics by T Aarskog and Karen O'Brien – Karen O’Brien (ep 144)43. To Wildflower Meadow, by The Eternal Page (featuring Karen O’Brien’s son Jens Stokke) – Paul Hawken (ep 145), the late Frank Fisher (ep 145 Extra)44. To Regeneration - best wishes for the new year!45. Closing the year with the end of our old theme song, The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.Title image: the Martuwarra / Fitzroy River, at Natalie Davey’s place (ep 112) (Anthony James).With thanks to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.Find more:To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to our website https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a podcast patron, donor or partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support.Thanks for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you again in 2023!
I hope you enjoy this little tribute episode. It’s the 10th anniversary of the passing of my old mate and mentor, Professor Frank Fisher. He’d be 79 today. The honours list of guests on these anniversary editions now includes Hazel Henderson, Allan Savory and Charlie Massy. This year, it’s Paul Hawken, the multiple best-selling author of Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation. This is the rest of the conversation Paul and I shared last week – featuring some fun personal exchanges, and even some out-takes (for those who listen right through), to close out the year.
We start with Paul’s take on the US mid-terms. Then we get the early running on what’s coming down the line with Project Regeneration. And there is plenty, including a global launch of a short film with an all-star cast, on December 5. After that, we got talking about some of Paul’s favourite episodes on The RegenNarration. I have a brief update on the podcast on the other side of this conversation too. Including ...
I’m shifting host platform for the podcast. It’s been a long time coming really. SoundCloud has been my host platform till now, and it really isn’t set up for podcasts anymore. The change shouldn’t affect your listening in any way. It’ll still be available where you listen to podcasts, and on The RegenNarration website. But if you do experience any glitches, this might be why, and will hopefully be short lived.
If you’re following the podcast on SoundCloud, it’ll still be available there too I believe, just not hosted there. Again, just let me know if you notice anything go wrong. And otherwise, I hope you find a better experience in the change too – with clearer show notes, website player and other benefits.
Title slide image: from the Project Regeneration website portal Nexus.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: Tune into the main episode, ‘Paul Hawken on Regeneration – A Year On (there are a few links in the show notes there too) - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/145-paul-hawken
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Paul Hawken won’t need an introduction for many of you. But for those unfamiliar, Paul is a multiple best-selling author, entrepreneur, and advisor to heads of state and CEOs on climatic, economic and ecological regeneration. Paul and I last spoke for the podcast a bit over a year ago, on release of his latest best-selling book, Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation. That’s now the most listened to episode on this podcast. It also marked the launch of Project Regeneration, what’s billed as the world’s largest, most complete listing and network of solutions to the climate crisis. This week, we got together again, to talk about some of the big shifts underway, and some acute edges at play right now – both on a very personal level, and globally.
We start in a very personal mode, on matters of living in the world today (including Paul’s next book!). Then we move through the extractive paradigm’s inevitable slide towards ever greater geo-engineering, on to more extraordinary stories of regeneration. This includes a focus on gender, place, healing from trauma, and other keystone aspects of regeneration. Along with examining contentious areas like offsets, carbon, methane, so-called green ammonia and the like, and how we might turn those into more holistic win-win-win approaches.
This conversation was recorded online with Paul at home is California on 15 November 2022, Australian time.
Title slide image: Paul Hawken (supplied).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Stay tuned for a special extra to this episode, out next week.
Read a transcript of our conversation and see a few photos on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
Project Regeneration - https://regeneration.org/
More on Paul Hawken, including his full catalogue of books, on his personal website - https://paulhawken.com/
Tune into last year’s conversation with Paul on episode 96, ‘Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/096-regeneration
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
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Thanks for your support!
Professor Karen O’Brien is a globally renowned thought leader on climate change impacts and social transformation. She has been heavily involved in the work of the IPCC, and shared in its 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. She’s also been on the scientific advisory board for Project Drawdown, and is the co-founder of cCHANGE, an Oslo-based company that has become a beacon in the space of social transformation. And a few months ago, cCHANGE launched Karen’s new book, called You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum social change for a thriving world.
The by-line reads: have we been underestimating our collective capacity for social change? Spoiler alert – big time! Friend and best-selling author of Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation, Paul Hawken, says: “You Matter More Than You Think is more than just a book. It is an awakening, a how-to manual showing a new path to social and ecological regeneration.”
It feels like we hear the themes of this conversation in so many other conversations on this podcast, right up to the last couple of weeks. This also feels like chapter 2 to the previous conversation Karen and I shared a few years ago. That’s where you’ll hear more about her fascinating background, and what led to her current passions - along with early ruminations on what’s become the new book. Here, we pick up the thread.
This conversation was recorded online with Karen at home is Oslo, Norway, on 7 November 2022.
Title slide image: Karen O’Brien (pic: from the book).
Music: Wildflower Meadow, by The Eternal Page (featuring Karen’s son Jens Stokke)
The Deep Ocean is Calling, composed by Eva Holm Foosnæs with lyrics by T Aarskog and Karen O'Brien - https://www.dropbox.com/s/2c9xrrj496vxqa0/202205%20The%20Deep%20Ocean%20is%20Calling-KSS-music%20by%20Eva%20Holm%20Foosn%C3%A6s%20and%20lyrics%20by%20T%20Aarskog%20and%20K%20O%27Brien.wav?dl=0
Find more: Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
On Karen and her book ‘You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum social change for a thriving world’ - https://www.youmattermorethanyouthink.com/
A 6-minute film of the book launch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Vc-f6z6Fo
Transformative leadership course - https://transformational-leadership.no/
Tune into our previous conversation on episode 42, ‘The Most Powerful Solution to Climate Change: Karen O'Brien on how people, systems and consciousness transform’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/042-the-most-powerful-solution-to-climate-change
Artist Tone Bjordam - https://www.tonebjordam.com/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
This week’s episode is something extraordinary. Last week featured a conversation with Di and Ian Haggerty, in a shearing shed filled by 170 people from right around the country. You might remember it ended with Di’s passing reference to some amazing insight that Noongar woman Heidi Mippy had shared. Heidi is an author, senior staffer with the Noongar Land Enterprise Group, and so much more. She had been personally invited to this event by Di, in anticipation of further growing the relationships they’d been treasuring with First Nations people. But no one could have anticipated what ended up unfolding while this event was taking place.
Ian and I were told of what Di already knew at that point, after the conversation between Di, Ian and I ended. Later in the day, after a farm tour, there was to be a panel conversation. It was to bring Di and Ian together with co-founder of natural intelligence farming, Jane Slattery, and long-time collaborator and organiser of this event, the CEO of Nutrisoil Nakala Maddock.
Given the amazing story unfolding in the background, and that we’d ended the morning session talking about the richness on offer for landholders in inviting First Nations people in, I suggested acting on that here and now. Heidi was subsequently invited to join that afternoon dialogue, and thankfully accepted the invitation. This is part of what ensued.
This conversation was recorded live at the Haggerty farm in the WA wheatbelt on 24 October 2022.
Title slide image: an aerial image of Wagyl (SmartSoil Media). See the episode web page for more photos.
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: Read a transcript of our conversation and see a few photos on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
Tune in to last week’s episode 142: ‘Dianne & Ian Haggerty on Tapping into Natural Intelligence, with live audience on the farm’ (you’ll find more links, some photos and transcript on the episode web page too) - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/142-dianne-ian-haggerty
Heidi Mippy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-mippy/
And Heidi speaking with Di, Damon Gameau and Anthony at the premiere screening of Regenerating Australia at Leederville for ep 122 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/122-regenerating-australia-live
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Longer term listeners to this podcast will feel increasingly familiar with Ian and Di Haggerty, creators of what Charles Massy has called their world breakthrough regenerative farming operation. But you won’t quite have heard them like this. Just last Monday, a capacity audience of 170 people from every state in Australia (and even a few continents) flocked to the shearing shed on one of the Haggerty farms in the WA wheatbelt, for a special day out. Years in the making, this was to be an exploration of what they call Natural Intelligence farming – what it means, how it works, and how they got here - in a way they’d never done before.
With the need and appetite growing for what they’re offering, there’s a feeling among a growing number of people that it’s time to share more of ourselves and put it all on the line. So in that spirit of generosity, Di offered a 45 minute presentation, before Ian joined us on stage.
This conversation was recorded live at the Haggerty farm in the WA wheatbelt on 24 October 2022.
Title slide image: gathering round Di and Ian on a tour of the farm (pic: Anthony James). You'll find more photos on the episode web page.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Di Haggerty on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/di-haggerty-07248b34/
Read a transcript of our conversation and see a few photos on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
Tune in to episode 68 for a tour around the farm with Di and Ian, produced over the first weekend I spent there in 2020 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
And to episode 124 with co-founder of Natural Intelligence farming, Jane Slattery - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/124-natural-intelligence-jane-slattery
Nutrisoil, the organisers of this event, and long-term collaborators with the Haggerty’s - https://nutrisoil.com.au/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Well known ABC radio presenter Natasha Mitchell called this an “unbelievably powerful session ‘On Fire!’” Ballardong Noongar leader and regenerative landholder, Oral McGuire, was alongside Greg Mullins, the former NSW Fire Commissioner who became a major national figure in the Black Summer bushfires, and Professor Lesley Head, co-author of the latest book in the incredible First Knowledges series (the first book in that series, Songlines, was featured in episodes 92 and 93, and they’re still among the top 5 most played episodes on this podcast). This conversation was part of the Quantum Words Festival here in Perth last month. This time, the day after Schools Day, with the adults, and again in pin-drop attentive silence.
The event billing read: It’s a fundamental tool, but also one of our greatest fears. Join former NSW Fire Commissioner Greg Mullins, Indigenous fire expert Oral McGuire, and cultural geographer Lesley Head, as they talk with Anthony James about our relationship with fire as the planet warms.
This conversation was recorded live at the Quantum Words Festival in the WA State Library in Boorloo / Perth on 17 September 2022.
Title slide image: Anthony, Greg, Lesley and Oral in conversation (pic: from a Twitter post by Natasha Mitchell).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
Greg’s book ‘Firestorm’ - https://www.penguin.com.au/books/firestorm-9781761040917
Lesley’s book ‘Hope & Grief in the Anthropocene’ - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315739335/hope-grief-anthropocene-lesley-head
And Lesley’s latest co-authored book ‘Plants: Past, Present & Future’, part of the First Knowledges series - https://thamesandhudson.com.au/product/plants-past-present-and-future/
To hear more from Oral (and Heidi Mippy), tune into ep 122, Regenerating Australia Live in Leederville - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/122-regenerating-australia-live
Quantum Words Festival, Perth – https://qwp.writingwa.org/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Bruce Pascoe in an Aboriginal Australian man, award-winning writer, and farmer. Last month I was fortunate to host Bruce in conversation at the brilliant Quantum Words Festival here in Perth. This was Schools Day, so there were about 150 people, mostly students, in the theatre. The session’s touchstone was Bruce’s extraordinary book Young Dark Emu. In keeping with its themes, we travelled deep and wide here, and in pin-drop attentive silence.
The event billing read: In Young Dark Emu - A Truer History, Bruce Pascoe uses the accounts of early European explorers, colonists and farmers, to argue for an understanding of Australia prior to the arrival of Europeans as a land of cultivated farming areas, productive fisheries, permanent homes, and thriving villages. Bruce discusses his work with Anthony James.
This conversation was recorded live at the Quantum Words Festival in Walyalup / Fremantle on 16 September 2022.
Title slide image: live audience for this event at John Curtin College of the Arts.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
You can also watch our conversation here (starting at 2.06.30) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeTKMC6A6C8
Black Duck Foods - https://blackduckfoods.org/
Young Dark Emu (and so much more at Magabala Books in Broome) - https://www.magabala.com/products/young-dark-emu
Quantum Words Perth – https://qwp.writingwa.org/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Here’s a little over 20 additional minutes of ‘offcuts’ from my conversation with Douglas Rushkoff. It features a few of our more personal exchanges. The first seven or eight minutes delves further into the dangerous appeal Douglas is seeing in the thinking of some prominent people. Which leads to exploring some recent experiences of the over-culture in our respective countries, with community-based election successes. Then we share a few instructive thoughts about respective older mentors, in life and death. And we go out with Douglas offering one of the wisest articulations I’ve heard on being a father in these times.
Title slide image: Douglas Rushkoff.
0.00 Introductions 2.00 The danger in the appeal of some prominent folk 6.15 The value or otherwise of aspiring for exponential change 9.40 Experiencing the over-culture in our respective countries, with community-based election success stories and the ‘consumption thing’ wearing thin 15.15 Some personal exchanges on our respective older mentors 17.00 The universal need for dignity and how it can lead to fascism, or better places 19.00 Being a father in these times – back to polyvagal theory
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: Tune into the main episode: ‘Douglas Rushkoff on surviving the tech billionaire mindset and embodying the over-culture’, with a few links in the show notes too, and a transcript, on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/139-douglas-rushkoff
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Douglas Rushkoff is the Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics who MIT named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals.” He also hosts the podcast I listen to most, called Team Human. And he’s the best-selling author of 20 books, including the new one, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires. The publisher’s blurb reads: ‘We always knew but now we know. The tech elite mean to leave us all behind. In Survival of the Richest, Rushkoff traces the origins of The Mindset in science and technology through its current expression in missions to Mars, island bunkers, and the Metaverse.’
A big early influence on me, Frances Moore Lappé, said: “Beyond eye-opening, this book is eye-popping. A master story-teller, Rushkoff brings to life perhaps the greatest challenge of our time, The Mindset that drives so much destructive behaviour, and blinds us to solutions beyond new technology and consumption. A must read.”
This is a profound and fun journey, firstly into the Mindset, then back out again. For Douglas’ book is no dead end, but an opening. Where the billionaire preppers and trans-humanists are ultimately dead ending, the current of life is flowing in a different direction.
0.00 Introduction 3.30 The Mindset! 19.30 Origins of The Mindset 33.00 Getting caught up in The Mindset while trying to ‘fix it’ (while exploring family stories and the wonders of epigenetics) 42.30 Douglas’ encounter with the Maori and our respective exchanges with Tyson Yunkaporta 53.30 ‘Human’ economies and platforms 61.00 If we’re the over-culture now … 66.00 A transformative tale in Douglas’ life before choosing to start a family 73.00 Music ...
This conversation was recorded online, with Douglas at home in New York City on 27 September 2022 (Australian time).
Title slide image: Douglas Rushkoff.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Stay tuned for a special ‘offcuts’ extra to this episode, out next week.
Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page, out shortly – https://www.regennarration.com/
Douglas’ website, where you can also pick up the book Survival of the Richest (and others) - https://rushkoff.com/
The Team Human podcast - https://www.teamhuman.fm/
Hear my previous conversation with Douglas on episode 41: ‘Playing for Team Human’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/041-playing-for-team-human
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Matthew Evans is a chef, farmer, host of the popular TV series Gourmet Farmer, and most recently the author of ‘Soil: The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy.’ And what an incredible story. Prepare for perhaps the most mind-blowing hour on this podcast (and that feels like it’s saying something). Matthew’s framed it as a story of bombs, of civilisations falling, of gods and pestilence, and redemption. Author and journalist Gabrielle Chan wrote, ‘This book is an urgent and passionate plea to take soil seriously, not just for farmers, gardeners and cooks, but for anyone who eats.’
In fact, Matthew was partly motivated to write this book due to the polarisation around the topic of his last book, On Eating Meat. Perhaps the topic of soil could be more universalising. And of course, it needs to be. I do feel this personally, too, as Matthew’s research affirms our growing understanding of soil (and our treatment of it) as being at the heart of our mental, physical and even spiritual health – in profound ways.
Due to Covid, and living over the other side of the country in Tasmania, Matthew had become something of a digital friend. So we resolved to wait to talk about this book till we could do it in person. And you’ll hear that we weren’t the only creatures celebrating that during our conversation. As often happens, the timing ended up perfect, allowing us to weave in some of the key happenings in the world right now.
This conversation was recorded by Derbal Yerrigan / Swan River in Boorloo / Perth on 17 August 2022.
Title slide image: Matthew Evans just before this conversation, dodging storms and sitting on tarps (pic: Anthony James).
Click on the photos below for full view, and hover over them for descriptions (pics by Anthony James).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Read a transcript of our conversation and see a few photos on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/
On the book ‘Soil: The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy’ - https://fatpig.farm/product/soil/
Fat Pig Farm – https://fatpig.farm/
Hear my previous conversation with Matthew on episode 60 ‘On Eating Meat’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/060-on-eating-meat
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Robert Pekin is the CEO & co-founder of Food Connect, the self-described ‘systems enterprise’ in Brisbane. You might remember Rob from episode 28 with his brilliant partner Emma-Kate Rose, when we talked at length about their back-story and their soon to be successful $2m equity crowd fund. And from episode 88 last year, with Kungalu and Birri-Gubba Woman Gaala Watson, on an imminent native grains - and milling - breakthrough, and a transformation in governance led by First Nations. Well, when I was in Brisbane for Convergence recently, I dropped in. Rob walked me around this old industrial property as it further transforms into Australia’s first multi-function Food Hub, now hosting over 40 enterprises - each outstanding stories in their own right.
This was just a quick visit. I’d just recorded with mutual friend Amanda Cahill for what became episode 134, and cycled up to the Shed for a look and some lunch together. I wasn’t going to record this either, but as I was being blown away all over again by Rob, alongside Chair of the Food Connect Foundation, Wiradjuri man from Dubbo NSW, Uncle Kel O’Neil, I had to pull out the recorder and share it with you. I’ve recorded this spatially too, so you’ll hear Rob & Kel as they were standing around me. Hope you enjoy that effect.
So join us at the Shed, for the conclusion to our Queensland series, and more beginnings for Food Connect.
This conversation was recorded at the Food Connect Shed on 14 July 2022.
Title slide image: Rob Pekin (bottom) and Uncle Kel O’Neill (top) against the backdrop of the Food Connect Shed (pics sourced from their websites).
You can see more photos on the episode web page.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Food Connect Shed - https://www.foodconnectshed.com.au/
Food Connect Foundation - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/
Hear my previous conversations with Rob, with Emma-Kate Rose in episode 28, and Gaala Watson here in episode 88 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/088-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part1
Read a transcript of our conversation including time stamps on the episode web page – ttps://www.regennarration.com/episodes/137-a-transforming-military-industrial-complex
And you can now gain access to all of the presentation recordings at Convergence, including Rob with Gaala Watson, via RCS Australia for $150 - https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/the-rcs-story/rcs-convergence-conference/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for your support!
Dr Terry McCosker OAM is the legendary co-founder of RCS Australia. Charles Massy credits RCS as being behind the greatest regenerative agriculture movement in Australia. And throughout its pioneering decades, Pam McCosker has been the unheralded lynch pin. Terry makes no secret of it. Nor did Charles when he wrote in his best-selling Call of the Reed Warbler: “When I look back over the rise of regenerative agriculture in Australia, I see at the forefront Terry and Pam McCosker and their RCS organisation. Today it remains a world leader in the field.” But almost incredibly, this is the first time Pam has ever appeared in media. Well, on the cusp of their 50th wedding anniversary next year, and with the zeitgeist coming in a rush to meet their trailblazing work, now seemed like a good time to speak with them together.
This conversation was recorded at their home in Yeppoon, Central Queensland, soon after sharing in the extraordinary Convergence event in Brisbane that marked the 30th anniversary of RCS. We debrief on that here, including on some of the major flashpoints emerging right now, and contemplate what might come next. All interspersed in this intimate, at times heart-breaking, and often downright entertaining journey into their life together – their personal convergence. A life forged through unfathomable loss, ultimate successes, and a still deepening call towards the heart of it all.
This is the story behind the story of the greatest regen ag movement in Australia. Here’s a rough timeline of our conversation:
4m – on home, Convergence, and an intimate, incredibly heart felt and very entertaining chat about their life together, family, the organisation and broader movement
29m - back to Convergence
36m – on Terry’s session at Convergence
46m – some of the big breakthroughs coming on, and what Terry’s role might be from here
58m – their spiritual journey
68m - where to from here?
This conversation was recorded on 3 August 2022.
Title slide image: Terry and Pam at home just after this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
You can see more photos on the episode web page. There'll be more from the Convergence event on Patreon for subscribing patrons.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: RCS Australia – https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/
Watch a 3-minute highlight video of the recent Convergence event, produced by Farmers Footprint Australia (which also launched at that event) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeP9zFAcBAw
And you can now gain access to all presentations from Convergence at RCS Australia for $150 - https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/the-rcs-story/rcs-convergence-conference/
Hear Terry and Anthony in conversation back in 2020 for episode 67: ‘Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia: Dr Terry McCosker on life, death and learning true power’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/067-behind-the-greatest-regenerative-agriculture-movement-in-australia
Read a transcript of our conversation on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/136-convergence
Join me at the Quantum Words Festival in Perth 16-18 September 2022 - https://www.regennarration.com/events/quantum-words-festival-parth-2022
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Thanks for your support!
Ross O’Reilly is a former champion regional rugby league coach, real estate agent and restauranteur, all on the way to founding his ultimate vision in 2016 – High Valley Dawn. It carries the label ‘permaculture farm’, but somehow feels like so much more. Think incredible market garden and food forest, deeply restorative work place and learning centre, grazing animals and thriving community, with all sorts of layers on that. And it’s still just getting started.
I first learned about Ross when Terry McCosker made particular mention of him when he was in WA late last year. Terry’s the legendary founder of RCS Australia who featured on episode 67, and will feature again next week, this time with wife Pam, to talk about the recent Convergence event in Brisbane, among other things. It was after that Convergence event that I drifted back to Yeppoon in central Queensland with the RCS crew, and made tracks for Ross’s place.
The High Valley Dawn journey began for Ross when a passion for wellness and sustainable development collided with a desire to serve fresh, local, organically grown produce in his nearby restaurant Beaches in Rosslyn Bay. His intention to one day create a self-sustaining community that would fulfil these desires, and help inspire future generations to get back to working in harmony with Mother Nature was set. In 2016, the stars aligned. But really, this story goes way further back.
This conversation was recorded at High Valley Dawn, just outside of Yeppoon, Queensland, on 2 August 2022.
Title slide image: Ross O’Reilly at the farm, just before this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
You can see more photos on the episode web page - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/135-high-valley-dawn
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: High Valley Dawn - https://www.highvalleydawn.com.au/
New Dawn Gathering on 24 September 2022 - https://events.humanitix.com/new-dawn-gathering
Transcript of our conversation (disclaimer, the transcripts aren’t perfect, but hopefully good enough to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like that) – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/135-high-valley-dawn
Quantum Words Festival in Perth 16-18 September 2022 - https://www.regennarration.com/events/quantum-words-festival-parth-2022
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Dr Amanda Cahill is the CEO of The Next Economy. I feel like I’ve already introduced Amanda to you, given how often she’s come up in conversations here. And you might even recognise her from Damon Gameau’s film 2040, or more recently on the ABC’s Q&A program.
Amanda’s work at The Next Economy supports communities, government, industry and others to develop a more resilient, just and regenerative economy. Most of this work results from being increasingly invited into regional communities around Australia. These are often major coal-producing communities at the centre of energy transition debates in this country. Tensions are often high, and polarisation rife, which has made us all subject to political exploitation at times. And we all lose from that. But Amanda’s work with these communities is creating a different trajectory. And now it’s not just communities inviting in The Next Economy - but governments, industry and media (even globally).
I first met Amanda back in 2016, at the outset of the New Economy Network of Australia. We got to know each other a little at panel conversations and the like, as recognition of her work grew. But when we last caught up at her place in late 2018, it seemed like The Next Economy was going to end before it had even really begun. How things have changed. Soon after came the first transformative shift. And in the last year alone, the organisation has grown eight-fold. Transformative change is gaining momentum – across multiple inter-related systems. But Amanda’s still feeling concerned. The next three years are vital, she says. And all largely pending how well we can be really present with each other, deeply listen, and support communities in the transitions underway everywhere.
This conversation was recorded at Amanda’s place in Brisbane, on 14 July 2022.
Title slide image: Amanda Cahill at home, just before this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: The Next Economy - https://nexteconomy.com.au/
Transcript of our conversation - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/134-the-next-economy
Quantum Words Festival in Perth 16-18 September 2022 - https://www.regennarration.com/events/quantum-words-festival-parth-2022
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
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Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Jodie Jackson is an author, yoga practitioner and media campaigner. Her first book is titled ‘You Are What You Read: why changing your media diet can change the world’. “Information is to the mind, what food is to the body”, she says. And after becoming a mother, and seeing the news affect even her small children, she wrote the children’s book ‘Little Ruffle and The World Beyond’. All this stemmed from years of looking deeply into the psychological impact of the news. Yes, she discovered no shortage of negative impacts from the barrage of negativity and misinformation. But she also discovered plenty of evidence of the beneficial effects of more constructive news on our wellbeing and society. Not ‘feel good’ puff pieces - more rigorous, whole-picture reporting. And there began Jodie’s at times deeply challenging journey of writing the books, speaking regularly, and just last week, launching a global News Literacy Network.
The by-line for the network is ‘empowering a more accurate worldview’. It says on its website: ‘We must develop the necessary skills to stand guard at the doors of our own mind. Our personal wellbeing, and wellbeing of the world depends on it.’
I first came across Jodie in the terrific news outlet Reasons to be Cheerful a couple of years ago, via a profoundly consequential piece about the responsibilities of media during pandemics and other major disease outbreaks. In it she alluded to the book she’d just written. So I reached out. And after a few twists of fate, we just happened to get together for this conversation the day after the new Network launched.
This conversation was recorded online with Jodie at home in London, on 16 August 2022.
Title slide image: Jodie Jackson.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Jodie’s website - https://jodiejackson.com/
News Literacy Network - www.newsliteracynetwork.org
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
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Welcome to this special extra with Kristy Stewart, featuring 20 additional minutes or so from our conversation. We went on here to talk about innovative enterprise development and next generation opportunities, and working with government and communities to help open these up. On the one hand, we talked changes to zoning and other regulations that inhibit young people and others joining in with value-add enterprises. And beyond that, Kristy’s been part of her community coming together in an influential local process reminiscent of what’s powered the community independents movement currently transforming politics in Australia. And we look at some of the incredible impacts of the education programs Kristy is co-developing at the farm.
Title slide image: Kristy Stewart at the native flowers garden, by one of the regenerated dams at the farm (holding a picture of just how badly degraded it had become) (pic: Anthony James).
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: You can hear the rest of Kristy and I in conversation in the main episode: ‘An Agroforestry Revolution: Kristy Stewart on family, community and spiritual transformation’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes too, along with some photos and a couple of videos on the episode web page – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/132-an-agroforestry-revolution
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Kristy Stewart is a regenerative farmer, free-diver, and next generation community leader. Kristy is already impressing audiences, students and other farmers around the country. And in a sense, it’s no surprise, given her pioneering family stock. Her father is Andrew Stewart, award-winning co-founder with Rowan Reid, in 1993, of the world-renowned Otway Agroforestry Network, in the south-east of Australia. Charles Massy describes it as the flagship of not only a revolution in agroforestry, but in peer-led transformative learning. And the Stewart’s 575-acre farm, Yan Yan Gurt West, is an extraordinary exemplar of what’s possible, in its astounding regeneration of landscape, productivity and community. Now Kristy’s own transformative journey is shaping the next generation of far-reaching possibilities.
Kristy talks here with such raw openness about a major transformation in her life, stemming from a journey to South America, and how she’s attempting to live that out. When Kristy subsequently found herself part of a panel conversation with Di Haggerty, she was compelled to spend time with Di at her place. And that’s when I got a call from Di, mid-last year while we were based at Ningaloo Reef, telling me of this impressive couple of sisters at her place, and that one of them was heading our way next – would we be up for meeting? Suffice to say, Kristy made an impression on us too. And a bit under a year later, we were fortunate enough to be visiting the Stewart family farm.
So the first half of our conversation is on some of the incredible story of this family, the regeneration of a landscape, and the broader revolution in their region and beyond. Ground breaking enough. Then the second half of our chat is on Kristy’s transformation, a deepening family story, and how all that’s shaping her taking up the mantle with the next generation.
This conversation was recorded at Yan Yan Gurt West farm in the Otways of Victoria, on 18 April 2022.
Title slide image: Kristy Stewart at home on the farm (supplied).
You can see more photos on the episode web page.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Stay tuned for a special extra to this episode, out later today.
Otway Agroforestry Network - https://www.oan.org.au/
Australian Agroforestry Foundation - https://agroforestry.org.au/
An invitation to Yan Yan Gurt West farm - https://www.visitmyfarm.com.au/yan-yan-gurt-west
A 5-minute video by the Bob Hawke Award organisers featuring Andrew Stewart, who ended up the award winner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3KXLsj2qLw&t=13s
And an older 5-minute video on Yan Yan Gurt West featuring Kristy and the broader family too, from 2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b26zrkwIPU
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Kate Fenech is a 15 year old student who’s found herself part of the extraordinary SS4C movement (the School Strikes for Climate), with growing passions for marine science and regenerative farming. I met her when we were both late conscripts to a premiere screening of Regenerating Australia in Busselton, WA, that ended up becoming a unique post-film dialogue.
The film’s director, Damon Gameau, was a late withdrawal, as was young activist and author, Bella Burgemeister. So Kate and I stepped into the breach, and that seemed to set up a vibe among the 75 or so people present of, ‘well I guess it’s just us!’ And to tell you the truth, for a while, I wondered if the whole thing was going to bomb. I’ve never hosted an event with an audience that was so pin-drop quiet. But that silence turned out to be more a measure of how much people were listening and contemplating, as just about everybody stayed, and we even drifted over time a little, for what became a frank, vital and ultimately wonderful community conversation.
3.45m - A short welcome from me
5.20m - A pre-recorded introduction to the film by Damon. (Damon actually came to feel that this was the most impactful part of the film tour, more than the film itself.) You can find the image Damon is talking to, on the episode webpage – that link’s in the show notes
10.35m - In conversation with Kate Fenech
22.15m - Our all-in dialogue starts
This conversation was recorded in the week leading up to Australia’s recent transformative federal election, at Orana Cinema in Busselton WA, on 16 May 2022.
Title slide image: Anthony James and Kate Fenech at the Orana Cinema in Busselton, WA (pic: Jennifer Seccull).
You can see more photos on the episode web page, including the image Damon talks to in introducing the film - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/131-a-narrative-of-possibility
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the film Regenerating Australia - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: School Strike 4 Climate Australia - https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/
Regenerating Australia is available for community screenings now (and grant applications, requests for materials etc.) - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Community Independents Project - https://www.communityindependentsproject.org/
You can hear my conversation with Jess Beckerling on the cessation of native logging in WA in episode 105 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/105-the-first-state-to-end-native-forest-logging
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Dr Valerie Brown is a Visiting Professor at the renowned Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University, and an international figure in the field of collective thinking, with a list of awards and accolades as long as your leg. But what brought me to her door was hearing doyen of regenerative agriculture, Charlie Massy, defer to her over the years. Charles was among her first students in the pioneering Human Ecology course in 1974 (a course the university establishment tried to have shut down). And when he returned to do the PhD that became the best-selling book Call of the Reed Warbler, Valerie was his supervisor. She’s “one of Australia’s greats”, he says. So after visiting the Massy farm earlier this year, Valerie was kind enough to welcome me to her place, up in the road in Canberra, for this conversation.
Incidentally, my guest from episode 85, Cathy McGowan, was also a student of Val’s – and features here in a great story. But there was another milestone on my way to Val’s place too, that also goes back to the 70s. My old mate and mentor Professor Frank Fisher used to talk of the Fenner crew, and gifted me one of the many trailblazing books Val co-wrote, called Tackling Wicked Problems, published back in 2010. Though here, Valerie talks of how her work has progressed far beyond that, drawing on her considerable impact globally, including hundreds of workshops on collective learning as a tool for transformational change.
This conversation was recorded in Canberra, 5 April 2022 (a month and a bit before the transformative federal election that resulted in so many more female independent MPs).
Title slide image: In the backyard with Valerie Brown, at home in Canberra (pic: Anthony James).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: The ABC Australian Story episode on Charles Massy features Valerie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58G9htz0hTk
Valerie’s extended bio, on her Collective Thinking website - http://www.collectivethinking.com.au/valerie-a-brown/
And at the Fenner School - https://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/people/visiting/honorary-associate-professor-val-brown
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Today’s episode features the legendary author, advisor and media producer, Hazel Henderson. Hazel has had such a big impact on so many, including yours truly. In my case, it has stemmed from over two decades following her work, and two hours of unhurried conversation for this podcast back in 2019. At the end of that conversation, Hazel invited me to visit if ever I was in Florida. And though I haven’t travelled overseas for 15 years, with emissions and other things in mind, I couldn’t help but wonder if one day that might be possible. Two months ago, however, the sad news arrived that Hazel had passed away, at the age of 89.
So this episode is a tribute to Hazel, drawn from our 2-part conversation almost three years ago – essentially, it’s the first 25 minutes or so of part 1 and the last 20 minutes or so of part 2. So it starts at the start, giving you my full introduction to Hazel, and the priceless, unassuming nature of how our conversation began – with a personal exchange on how we were going about life, media, connection and learning. Then it’s over to her beginnings, for what became a much-loved, pioneering and globally recognised life. And it culminates with some profound poignance that blew me away when listening back to it now.
Title slide image: Hazel Henderson at the outset, and towards the end (with EF Schumacher in the photo on the wall), of her public life (photos supplied – the latter taken by Vicki Robin).
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
The acoustic interlude about half way through is Cycles, by Simon Edwards (guitarist from the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra).
The tune accompanying the outro is by Jeremiah Johnson.
What If? (Impact: the Musical), by Jacqueline Emerson & co. – see the film clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oiWn1AXXk0
Find more: A tribute to Hazel - https://www.forevermissed.com/hazelhenderson/about
Donate in honour of Hazel, and to assist with the collating of her life’s work, here (all Hazel’s books are also available electronically on this page, in exchange for that donation) - https://www.ethicalmarkets.com/books/
If you’d like to hear the full 2-part conversation I shared with Hazel back in 2019 (and follow some additional links), head to episodes 49 and 50 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/049-changing-paradigms
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Jade Miles is an author, podcaster, farmer, organiser, speaker, and a few other things besides. I first came across Jade’s podcast, Futuresteading, back when it started. Then last year, the visual extravaganza of Futuresteading the book came along - sub-titled ‘live like tomorrow matters: practical skills, recipes and rituals for a simpler life’. It draws on Jade’s family life at Black Barn Farm – which features an incredible orchard of around 100 varieties of heritage fruit and berries, along with nursery, and workshop space in the Black Barn. Jade has also more recently become the CEO of Sustainable Table – so we get the inside story here of that transformative work and Fund we’ve heard a bit about in recent episodes.
Jade is one terrific communicator and connector. And here there is also some pretty raw, honest and grounded reflections. We start with the fascinating and at times funny back story of their journey to becoming farmers, before exploring that inside story of Sustainable Table. Then standby for our chat about her book and podcast, particularly the one episode that shook her for days - with Tyson Yunkaporta. There’s a bit of us two podcasters examining deeply what the point of doing such a thing might be, in light of her experience. And that’s our take off point for exploring her profound experiments with ritual at home, deeply felt mother’s dilemma on education and rites of passage, and her emotional connection with her music selection – one that comes full circle to her life’s beginnings.
In some ways, Jade’s one of a growing number of folk who, with her family, is just doing what they’re spotting up needs to be done – whether by them, or helping others, wherever they call home. This glimpse into the art of how they’re trying to make it work, financially, health-wise, family-wise, and with investors and philanthropists in the regeneration movement at large, offers plenty of evolving insights.
This conversation was recorded at Black Barn Farm in Stanley, Victoria, on 29 March 2022.
Title slide image: Jade Miles during our raspberry walk at the farm (pic: Anthony James).
You can see more photos on the episode web page.
Click on the photos below for full view, and hover over them for descriptions (pics by Anthony James).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Black Barn Farm - https://www.blackbarnfarm.com.au/
Futuresteading, the book – https://www.futuresteading.com.au/book/
Futuresteading, the podcast (where btw, you can hear more of Jade and I in conversation, on episode 5 of series 5, 4 July 2022 – though it was recorded after our visit to Black Barn) - https://www.futuresteading.com.au/podcast/
Sustainable Table Fund - https://sustainabletable.org.au/fund/
And if you’d like to hear the conversation I had with Jake Claro from Vermont, that’s episode 51, ‘Farm to Plate: Regenerating a state’s economy through food, land and culture’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/051-farm-to-plate
Eye in the Sky, by the Alan Parsons Project – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU-8lJtvVA4
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
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Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
You might remember Ian Congdon and Courtney Young from one of the great stories we heard about last year, on how this young family is changing the face of farming - and milling - in Australia. That’s through their incredibly delicious enterprise Woodstock Flour, and Courtney’s spectacular art. As it happens, our conversation last year took place on the day they finished building the first Australian mill in who knows how long. And coincidentally, it was also settlement day for the purchase of their own farm. So after we visited Serenity and Kirsten for the last episode, we dropped in to meet Ian and Courtney in person. And again, while just intending to say hi, another riveting chat over dinner compelled us to sit down and put something on record for you all to hear.
What we found was another uplifting sighter of a brilliant couple continuing to manifest transformative visions. We start here with the first item of huge news – their major grant success from the Sustainable Table Fund. That’s the ground-breaking Fund we heard about in the last episode, and from Tanya Massy earlier this year. This represents a big step towards creating a local regenerative grains economy in their region. Then we delve into their attempt at an innovative renewable energy set up, their artistic and practical explorations of what it means to be land-owners now in the context of Aboriginal dispossession, and the many opportunities for others to join in these regenerative efforts.
We also talk briefly about the changes in farming they’re observing with rapidly escalating input costs, some profound and entertaining experiments milling native grains from Black Duck Foods, and let’s just say a unique music selection on Ian’s part.
This conversation was recorded on their farm near Rutherglen, Victoria, on 31 March 2022.
Title slide image: Sunset at the Woodstock Flour farm near Rutherglen, Victoria (pic: Anthony James).
You can find more photos on the episode web page, and a further selection of pics on the page of our first conversation together last year, on episode 89 (link below).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Woodstock Flour - https://www.woodstockflour.com.au/
Courtney’s art - https://www.courtneyyoung.com.au/about
You can hear more of Courtney, Ian and I in conversation in episode 89: ‘A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence (Part 2): On making mills and the art of regeneration’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/089-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part2
Sustainable Table Fund - https://sustainabletable.org.au/fund/
Convergence, the RCS international conference in Brisbane on 16-17 July - https://rcsc2022.com.au/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
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This is a profound personal and collective story right at the heart of systemic and cultural change. Serenity Hill and Kirsten Larsen are regenerative farmers and co-founders of the Open Food Network. You might remember my conversation with Kirsten online two years ago, as Covid took hold, and Open Food Network took off. At that stage, they’d experienced a tenfold increase in both people signing up to the platform and in turnover, while spanning over a dozen countries. A lot has happened since, too, with the Network, with the trailblazing land ownership and succession model we touched on last time, and on a transformative personal level. So when our family visited theirs recently, we had to pull up a pew on the front porch together, and press record.
Our conversation starts with a very frank and vital conversation about land, ownership and money, and how investment can work best for those doing the actual work of regeneration. From there we delve into other ways to enable more of that work, including more values-based supply networks. And that leads us to where this pioneering couple is currently exploring further layers of personal transformation. Oh, and how over a decade ago, Serenity foresaw the independents movement that has just transformed Australia’s parliament.
More on the Open Food Network: it’s a not-for-profit, global collaboration building food distribution systems that are fair, local and transparent. The Network’s flagship open source platform enables new, ethical supply chains. And in the wake of COVID-19 has gone to a whole new level, as producers look for alternative ways to sell quality produce, and eaters look for alternative ways to access it.
This conversation was recorded in Violet Town, Victoria, on 29 March 2022.
Title slide image: Serenity and Kirsten (L-R), just before pressing record on this conversation (Anthony’s foot just makes it into this slide – the full photo can be viewed on the episode web page, along with a couple of photos on the farm) (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Open Food Network - https://openfoodnetwork.org.au/
And the farm, Pukawidgee - https://openfoodnetwork.org.au/warrenbayne-farm-collective/shop#/home
The pivotal survey being run currently by the Network - https://airtable.com/shrtECWZBFNtiiYLj
Sustainable Table Fund - https://sustainabletable.org.au/fund/
Convergence, the RCS international conference in Brisbane on 16-17 July - https://rcsc2022.com.au/
You can hear more of Kirsten and I in conversation from 2020, in episode 63: ‘Food Unincorporated: How a grass-roots system went global’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/063-food-unincorporated
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Paul Cleary is a best-selling author and journalist who’s just written an incredible book – certainly a must read for any Aussie, and every West Aussie, with implications that arguably extend far beyond. It’s called ‘Title Fight: How the Yindjibarndi battled and defeated a mining giant’. The back cover bills it as ‘a David and Goliath story set in the ancient landscape of the Pilbara’. That’s in the north-west, here in WA. And the mining giant is Fortescue Metals Group (or FMG), led by billionaire Chairman Andrew Forrest. In the face of that company’s staggering array of unscrupulous tactics, intimidation and exploitation, the Yindjibarndi people and their leader Michael Woodley, prevailed through to the highest court in the land. And this story is far from done at the closing of that back cover.
The implications of this extraordinary triumph continue to be enormous, for the Yindjibarndi, for Forrest and FMG, and for communities, economies and landscapes everywhere. For the Yindjibarndi have not just won a pivotal legal battle, they are demonstrating a model of holistic development that feels instructive for us all. And all based on deciding for themselves what sort of culture, community and commerce they want to create.
This story is so relevant to not just how to stop Forrest and FMG (and anyone else) from such ongoing disregard for Australian and Aboriginal culture, heritage and law. But for what this might mean for the renewable energy transition and other laudable initiatives that Forrest and his Foundation are engaged with, and for the nearby flashpoint of Woodside’s Scarborough Gas proposal (and others), among the greatest rock art site in the world.
This conversation was recorded by in Russell Square, Northbridge, in inner city Perth, on Whadjuk Noongar Country, 20 June 2022.
Title slide image: Paul Cleary, just before pressing record on this conversation (pic: Anthony James).
You can also see the transcendent image of Ned Cheedy, aged 106, with Michael Woodley’s grandson, from the back cover of Paul’s book, on the episode web page.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: ‘Title Fight: How the Yindjibarndi Battled and Defeated a Mining Giant’ - https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/title-fight
Paul Cleary on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-cleary-4b56213/
The Great Native Title Swindle short video mentioned in the conversation, featuring the notorious 2011 meeting in Roebourne - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w_fB7e0WCY
Ngaarda Media is an independent community broadcaster and media training hub with a vision to unite and broadcast the voices of the Pilbara - https://www.ngaardamedia.com.au/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Jane Slattery is the co-founder, with Diane and Ian Haggerty, of natural intelligence farming – underpinning what Charles Massy has called their ‘world breakthrough’ operation. And to hear Di an Ian defer to Jane in many ways, had me so looking forward to meeting her. Then, earlier this year, I happened to be near Jane’s neck of the woods in South Australia, hosting one of the Planet Talks at WOMAD. Thankfully, she was up for coming into Adelaide for a chat. And more by fate than design, she follows the episode with the legend Fred Provenza. In some ways, Jane sings off a similar song sheet. But where Fred was led by science to soul, you could say Jane has come at it from soul first - while still utterly grounded in our embodied experience of a wondrous world.
This is a very special and rare conversation. Jane is only now feeling like speaking publicly about her work in media like this. You’ll hear some of why. After running a successful family business around Australia, she gave it all up to follow a compelling sense of what she felt she needed to be doing. And, along with the Haggerty’s, she has gone on to guide and inspire an increasing number of brilliant regenerative outcomes around the country.
This conversation was recorded by the River Torrens in Adelaide, on the land of the Kaurna people, on 15 March 2022.
Title slide image: Jane Slattery (pic: Anthony James).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Jane Slattery – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-slattery-59829035/
You can meet Jane at the upcoming RCS Australia conference in Brisbane in July - https://www.regennarration.com/events/convergence-international-conference-2020
And if you’d like to hear from Di and Ian Haggerty out on their farm - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
This special extra to episode 123, with the legendary Fred Provenza, delves into more of the metaphysical context of everything we spoke about in the main episode. We traverse the spectra of collapse and regeneration, and how we can live well in all that, here and now. There are some profound stories of personal transformation here – and an ultimate convergence of mythology and mysticism with his life’s work on the wisdom body.
This part of our conversation led up to the ‘music question’ that closed the main episode, so it’ll also give a bit more context to Fred’s moving response there.
Title slide image: the cover to Fred’s book Nourishment (linked in the main episode).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: You can hear the rest of my conversation with Fred Provenza in the main episode: ‘The Wisdom Body: Fred Provenza on a paradigm change in animal, human and planetary health’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/123-the-wisdom-body-fred-provenza
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a subscriber or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Professor Fred Provenza is the legendary behavioural ecologist and author who has revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. This includes the regenerative role of livestock, in all sorts of ways. And through his own deep personal trials and transformations, Fred has come to embody this knowledge in ways that shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.
Fred’s published a few books on all this, culminating a few years ago in his master work, ‘Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom’. It’s been called a ‘paradigm-changing exploration’ with ‘implications that could vastly improve our health through a simple change in the way we view our relationships with the plants and animals we eat’. Montana Public Radio said: “Nourishment is a conversation between science, culture, and a greater spiritual or cosmological umbrella.” Indeed, you might describe this conversation the same way.
More on Fred: As professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University, Provenza directed an award-winning research group focused on how learning influences foraging behavior and how behavior links soils and plants with herbivores and humans. In addition to penning a book, he is one of the founders of BEHAVE, an international network of scientists and land managers.
This conversation was recorded online, with Fred at home in Montana USA, on 8 June 2022.
Title slide image: Fred Provenza.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Tune into the special extra to this episode with Fred, ‘A Cosmic Voyager with Amnesia’ - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/123-extra-a-cosmic-voyager-with-amnesia-fred-provenza/id1236423380?i=1000566207121
Fred’s book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom - https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/nourishment/
The BEHAVE international network Fred co-founded - http://behave.net/
Fred will be a keynote speaker (online) at the upcoming RCS Australia conference in Brisbane in July - https://www.regennarration.com/events/convergence-international-conference-2020
A reminder that Regenerating Australia will be screened at the Beverley Town Hall, in the wheatbelt of WA, on 17 June, with panel conversation featuring Oral McGuire, Di Haggerty, Grant Revell & Damon Gameau (online), hosted by Anthony James - https://www.regennarration.com/events/regenerating-australia-beverley
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Damon Gameau, the award-winning director of That Sugar Film and 2040, toured his new film Regenerating Australia around Western Australia’s south a few weeks ago. Joining him on the panel in Leederville was highly regarded First Nations woman Heidi Mippy, Natural Intelligence Farming co-founder Dianne Haggerty, and me. Ballardong Noongar man, Oral McGuire, who you’ll have heard mentioned a bit on this podcast (like in eps 87 and 105), granted us the privilege of his powerful Welcome to Country. And as you’ll hear, in some ways, proceedings on this night presaged the transformative federal election that was to come two days later (see ep 121 for more on that).
Incidentally, I’ll release the inspiring panel conversations from Margaret River and Fremantle for subscribers to the podcast on Patreon – so do jump on there if you haven’t yet! And I ended up hosting the Busselton event, where a very distinct conversation took place – I’ll have that out for you all to hear soon. For now, it’s over to Leederville, where 300 people came along for this final west coast screening, the penultimate event of Damon’s national tour.
Oral’s Welcome – 3.00m
Damon’s entry at the end of the film & panel exchange – 9.00m
Questions from the audience – 21.45m
This panel conversation was recorded at Luna Cinema in Leederville, Perth, on 19 May 2022.
Title slide image: the Regenerating Australia tour image (supplied).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Regenerating Australia is available for community screenings now (and grant applications, requests for materials etc.) - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
It’ll also screen at the Beverley Town Hall, in the wheatbelt of WA, on 17 June, with panel conversation featuring Oral McGuire, Di Haggerty, Grant Revell & Damon Gameau (online), hosted by Anthony James - https://www.regennarration.com/events/regenerating-australia-beverley
And for more on the RCS Australia conference - https://www.regennarration.com/events/convergence-international-conference-2020
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
This special extra to episode 121 follows how election day unfolded with Kate Chaney, in the now independent seat of Curtin. You’ll hear the growing atmosphere on the day, culminating in an extraordinary night, with powerful words from Kate that give great insight into the building of a community, and a campaign.
We start at the local polling booth, and hear from Kate early on. Then it’s on to the Claremont Showgrounds for what was certainly our first election night candidate celebration – and we weren’t alone in that. You’ll hear a special Welcome to Country from Carol Innes AO. Then campaign manager, Sarah Silbert, introduces Kate. And if you last through to the end of it, you might hear a certain podcast host rock out a little Ode to Kate to close the evening celebration.
Stage host, and another prominent campaign contributor, was James Lush.
This was recorded on election day, 21 May 2022.
Title slide image: the bicycle powered billboards mentioned in the main episode, sitting outside the Scarborough Primary School polling station on election day.
Music: Ode to Kate, by Anthony James. Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: You can hear my conversation with Kate Chaney six days later, after she was confirmed as having won the seat, in the main episode: ‘A Political Paradigm Shift: Kate Chaney on becoming the 7th new female independent MP in Australia’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, and some photos - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/121-a-political-paradigm-shift
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a subscriber or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Kate Chaney has become the first female independent MP from Western Australia to be elected to the Australian parliament – along with a whopping eleven other independents. A year ago to the day on this podcast, Cathy McGowan – Australia’s first female independent MP in 2013 – talked of the potential to transform politics in this country by 2030. Merely a year on, and that transformation is well underway.
This story isn’t limited to Australia either. But more on that another day. This Australian story is now global news. The BBC and Time Magazine were among many beaming into Kate Chaney’s election night event. I’ll put out a special extra to this episode next, following how election day unfolded with Kate in the now independent seat of Curtin. For now, join Kate and I the day after her win was confirmed, as the sun set on Cottlesloe Beach.
This conversation was recorded among Friday evening revelers at Cottesloe Beach, on the day after the seat of Curtin was won by Kate Chaney, 27 May 2022.
Title slide image: Kate Chaney speaking at her election night event (credit: #MilesTweediePhotography). You can find more photos on the episode webpage (see below).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Tune into the special extra to this episode ‘How Election Day Unfolded, with Kate Chaney in the now independent seat of Curtin’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/121-extra-how-election-day-unfolded
You can hear my conversation with Kate at the start of her campaign in February, accompanied by some photos and links (with a link, also, to the episode with Cathy McGowan a year ago) at https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/110-independents-day
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Tony Rinaudo instigated what’s been called “probably the largest positive environmental transformation in the Sahel and perhaps in all of Africa." They call him The Forest Maker, but Tony will tell you the transformation was really in the people, starting with himself. I had this conversation with Tony back in 2020, and have never forgotten it. It’s one of those stories you wish everyone knew. So when Tony reached out to me recently to let me know he’d just finished his autobiography, and given there are so many more of you listening to this podcast today than there were two years ago, it seemed fitting to re-release this excerpt of our conversation.
The new book is called The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis. It follows Tony’s journey from Australia to Niger, and tells the miraculous story of how his discovery revolutionised reforestation in Africa, restoring over 18 million hectares of degraded land across 27 countries, without planting trees - and all led by the people who live there. But really, that’s not the half of this story. As a metaphor, it’s a revelation of the sheer scale of possibility if we focus on tending and harvesting what’s already within us, as people and planet.
This conversation culminates in some of the most extraordinary, moving and instructive stories I’ve ever heard.
“I’m often called The Forest Maker, or Tree Whisperer. Don’t believe a word of it. 95% of my time is spent re-greening mindscapes. If we win that battle, the rest is relatively easy.” – Tony Rinaudo, at his virtual book launch on 22 April 2022.
“For years I have longed to see this biography written. And it lives up to my every hope.” - Tim Costello, CEO World Vision Australia 2004–2016.
This conversation was recorded online with Tony at home in Melbourne, in June 2020.
Title slide image: Tony Rinaudo in the field (supplied).
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: If you’re in Australia or NZ, you can buy ‘The Forest Underground: Hope for a Planet in Crisis’ on the publisher’s website at iscast.org/tfu
Or you can get it on Amazon, Book depository, or wherever you get your books.
If you’re in or near Melbourne on 31 May 2022, you can register for the book launch at St Paul’s Cathedral (featuring Tony, Tim Costello and others) - https://iscast.org/events/book-launch-the-forest-underground-by-tony-rinaudo/
If you’d like to hear more of Tony’s background, go back to episode 64 and listen to the first 15 minutes or so. That’s in The Forest Maker: And the largest positive environmental transformation in Africa, with Tony Rinaudo AM - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/064-the-forest-maker
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Kim Paul Nguyen is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker. He recently produced a documentary film called ‘Conversations with Coal Miners about Climate Change’, funded by the Walkley Foundation and distributed by VICE. And what a film. Damon Gameau, the award-winning filmmaker of 2040, That Sugar Film, and most recently Regenerating Australia, calls it a ‘must-watch’. In many ways, there is no more important a story. And Kim navigates it beautifully. Though not without hitting up against the challenges that make this work so vital.
Out of the story’s dramatic and moving turns so much is revealed, including how coal miners, and the rest of us, are too often used as political pawns. And how we can get out of that trap, to have a chance at achieving more of the bigger picture outcomes just about all of us want.
Kim’s is a heck of a life story to date, and this provides the backdrop to the film. As a young person deeply concerned about climate change, he became a committed activist. In 2009 he cycled from Australia to Denmark to promote action on climate change, and was nominated for Young Australian of the Year. But it started to dawn on him that what he was doing wasn’t working. It wasn’t changing things the way he’d hoped. So he headed north, camera in hand, to dig deeper into what might.
Kim has also written for The Guardian, Al Jazeera, VICE and the Big Issue.
This conversation was recorded online with Kim at home in Sydney, on 11 May 2022.
Title slide image: Kim setting up in Clermont, Queensland (supplied).
Music: Temporary, by Yen Nguyen. Find more of Yen’s tunes at https://znap.link/mechanicalpterodactyl
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, on tour around Western Australia this week - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Kim’s website - https://www.kimpaulnguyen.com/
Kim’s film ‘Conversations With Coal Miners About Climate Change’ (37 minutes, freely available) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGCYrK9ZC7k
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
If you’d like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to my Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
I’ve added an offering in The RegenNarration shop too - https://www.regennarration.com/shop
You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Agostino Petroni is a journalist, author, economist, gastronome, and 2021 Pulitzer Center Reporting Fellow. His work appears in National Geographic, BBC, The Atlantic and many more. I first came across it in Reasons to be Cheerful, the terrific news outlet founded by one of my all-time favourite musicians and producers, David Byrne. That outlet is part of a growing movement sometimes called ‘solutions journalism’. Though you might just call it good journalism. And Agostino’s article that first caught my eye is a great example of that – outlining a terrific success story so relevant to some of the pioneering efforts – and vital needs - we’ve heard about in this podcast.
One of the most fascinating and popular stories on the podcast was featured in the 100th episode under the title Wanted Land Doctors. I’ve had many interesting exchanges in the wake of that episode, including with a listener in the eastern states who shared stories of goats being used by public agencies to reduce fire fuel loads after the horrific Black Summer fires here in Australia. It turns out that the Mediterranean region has created some great models in this mould, that are successfully getting people back on Country, with communities and their livelihoods reinvigorated, and trajectories of mega-fire, extinction and polarised politics reversed.
In the first half of this episode, we talk about Agostino’s unexpected personal journey into the work he does, his formative film-making journey to Latin America, and this phenomenon of so-called ‘solutions journalism’. In the back half, we delve into some of the incredible stories he’s found, principally that piece from Reasons to be Cheerful, and the patterns we’ve observed.
This conversation was recorded online with Agostino at home in Puglia, Italy, on 3 May 2022.
Title slide image: Agostino Petroni at TEDx Barletta (sourced at https://tedxbarletta.it/2019.html#)
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: The article from Reasons to be Cheerful ‘Grazing Livestock Among the Trees Is Helping to Prevent Wildfires’ - https://reasonstobecheerful.world/grazing-animals-in-forests-prevent-wildfires/
Some of Agostino’s broader work - https://apetroni.contently.com/
Including ‘How to Save the Sea: Lessons from an Italian Fishing Community’ in the legendary Yes Magazine - https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/08/24/how-to-save-the-ocean-fishing-community-lessons
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
A lost and angry childhood spawned a champion boxer, and out of this, a community leader. And fifteen years ago, Eugene Eades became the backbone of the incredible restoration of Country at Nowanup - inland of Bremer Bay in the south of Western Australia. This is a particularly privileged conversation on Country at Nowanup, with this legendary Aboriginal elder. Eugene might move a little slower than those championship days, but his sharp eyes, wry humour, and rock solid presence resonate as powerfully as ever.
Nowanup is a 750ha property that is part of the broader 1,000km stretch of restoration happening through the Gondwana Link network (featured on episode 79). The Healing People/Healing Country initiative at Nowanup has been unique and transforming for both People and Country over 16 years now. Eugene has led cultural and educational camps for communities, schools and universities, youth at risk and justice intervention programs, eco-art projects, music festivals, cultural heritage assessments and much more. Importantly, Nowanup has formed an important place of respite for local Noongar people to recharge and continue to care for each other. The more than 16,000 visitors to Nowanup have also included other Indigenous people from all over Australia, and non-indigenous people from all over the world. And since the Nowanup ranger programs were established, a string of Ranger groups has been formed across the region.
Join us with a little audience around the fire in one of the thatched meeting places at Nowanup, for a treasured yarn, and a special tune from Eugene.
This conversation was recorded on Country at Nowanup on 24 January 2022.
Title slide image: Eugene Eades showing us around Nowanup (pic: Anthony James).
You can see a few other photos of the beautiful Country at Nowanup on the episode web page.
Music: Looking Back To Yesterday Again, by Eugene Eades, performed with Bruce Anthony
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Nowanup website - https://nowanup.ieagles.com.au/
A direct link to the beautiful 10 minute short film mentioned - https://vimeo.com/user106126840?embedded=false&source=owner_name&owner=106126840
You can donate or get involved to support the work at Nowanup via Gondwana Link - https://gondwanalink.org/gond_projects/nowanup-welcome-to-noongar-boodja/
Hear Gondwana Link’s CEO Keith Bradby talk about the Nowanup story and what it means to him on episode 79 – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/79-gondwana-link
And to view some outstanding footage of Eugene as a 5-time State Champion boxer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGVy2P4AeFo
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Louise O’Neill is a British-born holistic health professional and farmer. She met husband Warren as a backpacker, and now with their two sons, they’ve embarked on a gutsy, vivid and transformative journey. The O’Neills were farmers in the wheatbelt of Western Australia, but reached a point where the tribulations and toxicity of that life were literally hitting them in the face. When a tractor breakdown prompted personal breakdown, they picked up and moved south, took courses in regenerative agriculture, and started to turn their new farm’s fortunes around. And out of all this, Louise began to expand her passion and enterprise for helping to improve the health of regional families across the country.
When we returned south from the Kimberley late last year, we had earmarked some time south in the new year with Tanya Massy and her partner Kris, near Denmark in Western Australia (that story features in the previous episode). With Tanya just setting up her place, Louise and Warren reached out to welcome us to their home. And as we got to know each other a little, I was struck again by the gutsy transformations being negotiated in people’s lives everywhere. This was another brilliant and moving story of regeneration. And again, with an invitation to others to explore the abundant opportunities with them.
Post script: Soon after this was recorded, Louise was named a finalist in the AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award. A week later, she was declared the winner. She now goes into the mix for the national award.
This conversation was recorded in the dappled shade by the creek at Mt Romance farm on 28 January 2022.
Title slide pic: the entry to Mt Romance farm (pic: Olivia Cheng).
You can see a few photos from Mt Romance on the episode web page too.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Farm Life Fitness - https://farmlifefitness.com.au/
Visit Mt Romance farm (their farm-stay business) – http://www.mtromancefarm.com.au/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Part 2 of this episode with Tanya Massy was recorded in two locations. The first half was recorded back at the farm in Western Australia, on that hay bale. We delved further into Tanya’s deep personal journey of leaving Severn Park and starting up a new farming enterprise on the other side of the country. That was recorded back in January, as that enterprise was just going to market. Then came heartbreak. Soon after we left, Tanya and Kris had to pull the plug on it all and return to the Massy farm at Severn Park.
As fate would have it, come late March, Tanya and Kris had just arrived back at Severn Park when we were in northern Victoria visiting Ian and Courtney (my guests from episode 89). So we followed the Murray River for a while, wound our way through the Snowy Mountains, and reconnected with Tanya back at Severn Park for the second half of this episode. We talk about what happened, how they’re recovering, how the land is thriving, and what they’re starting up now.
This conversation was recorded on-location at Severn Park in New South Wales, on 3 April 2022.
Title slide image: The ‘treehouse’ – Charlie Massy’s office, inside which this conversation was recorded, at Severn Park farm (pic: Anthony James).
See the episode web page for a selection of photos from Severn Park, including some spectacular 'before and after' shots.
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Find more: You can hear the rest of Tanya and I in conversation in the main episode: ‘Farming Wonder: Tanya Massy on growing up, starting up and scaling up regeneration’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes, and a few more photos on that episode web page too - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/115-farming-wonder-tanya-massy
And if you’re interested, you can hear the WOMAD event I hosted with Charlie Massy, along with Anika Molesworth and Bruce Pascoe, on the WOMAD podcast - https://womadelaide.podbean.com/e/climate-fighting-farming-the-planet-talks-womadelaide-2022/
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Tanya Massy is one of three brilliant daughters of regenerative agriculture legend, Charles Massy. Though she’ll tell you she’s been equally inspired by the strength and spirit of her mother Fiona. Great lineage aside, Tanya is forging her own pivotal path as a regenerative farmer, award-winning writer, and highly respected researcher. A couple of recent reports, in particular, are making a big impact, exploring the barriers to regeneration, and breakthrough opportunities, with communities around Australia and the world. Stemming from that, she’s helping to create more of those breakthrough opportunities in some significant ways. Meanwhile, she continues to chart her own farming journey, starting up a new enterprise far from home.
This is where we meet for this conversation - at the new farm, Wildewood, near the town of Denmark in the south of Western Australia. I’d last seen Tanya there in late 2020, just as they were settling on the land purchase. A little over a year later, and we’re one of their first customers at the local farmers market. But none of this story follows a straight line.
This conversation was recorded at Wildewood Farm on 23 January 2022.
Title slide pic: Tanya in the foreground, with little companion Nullaki at her feet, partner Kris to her right, and Olivia to her left (pic: Anthony James).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Stay tuned for a special extra to this episode, out next week.
Wildewood Farm website (in development) - https://www.wildewoodfarm.com.au/
And on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wildewood.farm/
Changing Face of Farming magazine, with Tanya on the cover - https://www.youngfarmersconnect.com/
Sustainable Table Fund - https://sustainabletable.org.au/fund/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
I had this conversation with Cathy McGowan in the middle of last year, just as the community minded independents movement in Australia was really picking up. Since then, it’s been astronomical – the number of ‘voices for’ groups has exploded around the country, followed by an array of quality candidates that have responded to their communities’ calls to contest the next federal election. And many of them are genuine contenders. So with the election now due next month, it seemed a good time to re-release this pragmatic and inspired last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with Cathy.
The community Cathy represented in the seat of Indi changed the trajectory of politics in this country, and may just be about to see it transform altogether. I’ve just spent some time visiting people around Indi, and seen posters of Helen Haines, Cathy’s brilliant successor, in town after town. And why wouldn’t they be? Perhaps this little excerpt can help spur us along towards what Cathy envisages as the transformation of politics in this country by 2030.
We pick things up with a powerful sequence from Cathy, and an insight into what’s bubbling up around the country in the lead up to the next federal election. We then go into how things worked for her, as the first female independent MP to sit on the Australian parliamentary crossbench, and other increasingly successful independents, on the ground – the practical realities, the value set, and the networks of support that make it all possible. We close with more of the vision, strategy and supportive infrastructure being developed, to get more community-minded independents elected. Oh, and an express request from Cathy to share this podcast.
Title slide pic: Just one of the many Helen Haines billboards all around Indi right now.
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.
Find more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in episode 85, ‘Politics That Works: A proven way becoming a powerful movement’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/085-politics-that-works
And my conversation with our local independent candidate, Kate Chaney, is in episode 110, ‘Independents Day: Kate Chaney on contesting a key seat & transforming politics’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/110-independents-day
There are a series of links on each of those episode web pages too.
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is a Spanish version of episode 113.
Esta es una versión en español del episodio 113. Aqui, por supuesto, Inés habla por sí misma, y Rony traduce mis palabras. Desafortunadamente, no incluye las partes del episodio principal donde Rony y yo hablamos en inglés, cuando me dirigía a él directamente. Pero incluye una platica divertida extraoficial donde hablamos entre nosotros tres en español. Retomamos nuestra conversación al principio.
El Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura (IMAP) es una cooperativa sin fines de lucro que comenzó en el año 2000 en San Lucas Tolimán, a orillas del espectacular Lago de Atitlán en las tierras altas Mayas de Guatemala. Fue creado por un grupo de Kakchiquel Mayas con el deseo de usar semillas nativas, permacultura, conocimientos indígenas tradicionales y educación, para crear recuperación social después de 36 años de conflicto armado que eliminó a cientos de comunidades y desplazó a millones de sus tierras. Recuerdo haberme inspirado con el IMAP en sus primeros años, cuando vivía en Guatemala. Y a finales del año pasado, los organizadores de un importante premio mundial me contactaron para informarme de que IMAP era uno de sus ganadores.
Puedes escuchar la versión en inglés de Inés, Rony y yo en conversación en el episodio principal: 'Transformations with Mayan Culture and Permaculture'. También encontrarás algunas fotos allí - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/113-transformations-with-mayan-culture-and-permaculture
Foto principal: Lago de Atitlán.
Música: Stones & Bones, por Owls of the Swamp
Gracias, como siempre, a los generosos seguidores de este podcast, por hacerlo posible. Si usted también valora lo que escucha, considere unirse a ellos convirtiéndose en patrocinador o donante del podcast, dirigiéndose al sitio web en https://www.regennarration.com/support.
¡Gracias por ayudar a mantener el espectáculo en marcha!
Y gracias por escuchar.
El Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura (IMAP) - the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute - is a not-for-profit coop that started in 2000 in San Lucas Tolimán, on the shores of the spectacular Lake Atitlán in the Mayan highlands of Guatemala. It was created by a group of Maya Kakchiquel with the desire to use native seeds, permaculture, traditional Indigenous knowledge and education, to create social healing after 36 years of armed conflict that wiped out hundreds of communities and displaced millions from their land. I remember being inspired by IMAP in its early years, when I was living in Guatemala. And late last year, I was contacted by the organisers of a major global award advising that IMAP was one of its winners.
I had arranged to speak with IMAP coordinator Inés Cuj, only to find twice the privilege when founding director Rony Lec joined us as a translator. Rony is one of the world’s leading experts in permaculture and Mayan ancestral knowledge. Rony’s father was killed by the army during the war, and he has recently moved to Canada to secure the safety of his family. And, he says, to get his hands back in the soil.
Inés succeeded Rony in the lead role, and Rony credits her with bringing so much of what IMAP needed to take its vital next steps. From empowering women and youth, to developing the viability of IMAP itself, along with that of the many farmers and communities with whom they work.
With thanks to Clare Carlile and team at the legendary Ethical Consumer magazine in the UK for setting up this conversation. Turns out they’d been inspired by the podcast and wondered if I’d be interested in becoming a media partner of a major global award they’d helped create with Lush Cosmetics a few years prior. It’s called the Lush Spring Prize, and it offers a £200,000 fund and other support for regenerative projects around the world. This time they had over 400 applications, a 60% jump on last time, from inspiring projects spanning 81 different countries on every continent except Antarctica.
In her initial email to me, Clare cited two award winners, just to give me a sense of it. And as fate would have it, IMAP was one of them.
This conversation was recorded online on 1 March 2022, Australian time, with Inés in Guatemala and Rony in Canada.
Title slide image: María Inés Cuj (sourced from her social media).
You can see a few more photos on the website.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Find more: Stay tuned for a Spanish version of this episode soon (including some off-record chat)
IMAP website (including an English version) - https://imapermacultura.org/
Lush Spring Prize 2021 - https://springprize.org/
The Spring Prize web page on IMAP - https://springprize.org/shortlisted/instituto-mesoamericano-de-permacultura-imap/
Ethical Consumer magazine / website - https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/
And the page dedicated to the Lush Spring Prize - https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/lush-spring-prize
You can watch the award sessions again in six different languages - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VH3wolIx7gf_qJe-gjqqdEP9pQ1hdF6V
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This special extra to episode 112 features the rest of my conversation with Traditional Custodian of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, Natalie Davey. We pick up our conversation with a couple minutes more of Natalie’s description of the kinship systems of her Indigenous community. Then we delve into the brilliant story of how Nat and her old man ended up hosting a show on the local First Nations radio station – and some of the enormous benefits stemming from it. And we go on to what Natalie thinks is needed most right now, some of her fascinating family histories, and why she feels so positive about people.
You can hear more of Natalie and I in conversation in the main episode: ‘We All Need to Connect: Natalie Davey on protecting the Martuwarra Fitzroy River - and everything else’. You’ll find a bunch of links and photos in the show notes there too - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/112-we-all-need-to-connect
Title slide pic: Anthony and Natalie in conversation for this episode, at Nat’s place on the banks of the Martuwarra (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
You Shine, by the kids with Tura (see the main episode for details).
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Our final episode recorded in the Kimberley last year features Natalie Davey, a Bunuba-Walmajarri woman, Traditional Custodian of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, first Indigenous Chair of Environs Kimberley, broadcaster, artist, educator and so much more. What a privilege it was to be welcomed to her home and Country, on the banks of the River just outside Fitzroy Crossing. The Martuwarra is one of the last wild rivers in the world and, as you may have heard in previous episodes, it’s at the heart of another flashpoint right now.
Extractive colonial narratives of ‘advancing the north’ persist. One of Australia’s outstanding audio documentary makers, Kirsti Melville, entitled her recent 2-part ABC podcast on this place: ‘First they came for the land, now they come for the water’. But then, Nat recalls how her own Indigenous grandmother was afraid of Native Title, fearing it might mean she had to return to a tough life on Country. So if anyone can speak to where we go from here, it’s Nat.
This is a very special conversation by the Martuwarra, a deep insight into the Kimberley, its extraordinary Country and rich cultures, how we can avert the threats to it all, and be part of the brilliant and growing regenerative collaborations and economies everywhere. We talked for nearly two hours, having given this the time it needed. So there’ll be a special extra to this episode released next week too, with this natural, wise and generous guide to the Martuwarra.
This conversation was recorded on Natalie’s Country by the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, just outside of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region in the far north of Western Australia, on 24 September 2021.
Title slide image: The view of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River from Nat’s place (pic: Anthony James).
You'll see some more pics on the website too (link below).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, screening around the country now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
You Shine, by Tura Music - https://www.tura.com.au/
Discover more: Stay tuned for the special extra to this episode next week.
Environs Kimberley (where Nat is now Chair) - https://www.environskimberley.org.au/
Indigenous Literacy Foundation shop - https://shop.ilf.org.au/
The Guardian article featuring Natalie and her short clip in the award-winning documentary series, Voices of the River - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/06/fitzroy-river-the-push-to-prevent-a-repeat-of-the-murray-darling-basin-disaster
Kirsti Melville’s ABC audio documentary mentioned in the intro - https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/martuwarra-fitzroy-river/13419878
Wangki Yupurnanupurru Radio - http://www.wangki.org.au/
And the radio show Nat now hosts with her father (more on this in Part 2 next week) - https://omny.fm/shows/wangki-radio/danggujarra-language-program-s5e59
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
David Pollock is one of Australia’s most prominent regenerative pastoralists. He and wife Frances have featured a few times on the award-winning ABC TV series Australian Story. But I’m more fond of telling people these days they’ve featured a few times on this podcast! David’s also known for his brilliant book, ‘The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource’. That was aptly described as ‘The astonishing story of reviving the oldest land on Earth’.
When the book was published a few years ago, the Western Australian State Minister for Regional Development, Agriculture and Food (& now Hydrogen) paid David and Frances a visit to talk about it. A few years on, just last week, the Minister returned with a big announcement. This was going to be a shorter episode about just that – that was big enough. But when David and I were talking about that, we ended up talking about some other big changes – in himself.
So you’ll find the first half hour of our conversation is on the significant array of developments afoot right now. And the rest, the personal transformations at the heart of them all.
This conversation was recorded online on Thursday 3 March 2022.
Title slide image: Minister Alannah MacTiernan, David Pollock & Debbie Dowden, Chairperson of the Southern Rangelands Pastoral Alliance, at Wooleen Station for the big announcement last week (sourced from the Ministers ‘social media’ post).
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, launching this week - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Discover more: Wooleen Station – https://wooleen.com.au
David’s book ‘The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource’ - https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-wooleen-way
The Minister’s media statement on the Southern Rangelands Revitalisation Pilot - https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2022/02/Southern-Rangelands-Revitalisation-Pilot-kicks-off.aspx
Landholders for Dingoes - https://landholdersfordingoes.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/landholdersfordingoes
You can hear more of David and I in conversation, out at Wooleen Station, for episode 66 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/066-wooleen-a-year-on
You can hear the detailed conversation David and I shared on the release of his book ‘The Wooleen Way’ in episode 44 – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/044-the-wooleen-way
You can also hear David and his wife Frances in a live panel event conversation with Charles Massy and I in episode 16 ‘Grassroots Revolution’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/016-grassroots-revolution
And my conversation with Frances back at Wooleen Station in episode 9 ‘Regenerating Land & Food Systems’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/009-regenerating-land-food-systems
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Kate Chaney is another of the growing number of independent candidates being announced around the country who might have a big say in the next pivotal federal election here in May. Kate is being described by many media outlets as Liberal Party royalty. That’s the nominally conservative party in Australia – or at least it has been, prior to this incoherent incarnation currently in government. Kate’s uncle, Fred Chaney, was a prominent Liberal Party parliamentarian, and her grandfather too. But three weeks ago at her campaign launch, Fred endorsed Kate as the independent candidate for the federal seat of Curtin, given the dire need for systemic change. Curtin is reportedly the fifth safest Liberal Party seat in the country. But it’s not feeling like that now.
Notwithstanding those media headlines, Kate’s been on her own path with politics, and everything else. And on the back of that, she came across the radar of Curtin Independent, the community group formed in Curtin to do what so many other communities are doing – seeking and nominating independent candidates; candidates not after a political career or power for its own sake, but to represent their communities. Imagine. And she’s standing to win.
This conversation was recorded at Galup / Lake Monger, in the inner north-west of the city of Perth, Western Australia, on Tuesday 22 February 2022.
Title slide image: Kate Chaney (from her website).
You can see a few more photos on the website, including of the campaign launch we talked about.
Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, launching this week - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Discover more: Kate’s website - https://www.katechaney.com.au/
Kate’s first video ‘campaign diary’ entry from the shores of Lake Monger / Galup, where our conversation was recorded - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlZ95pUhPdw
Curtin Independent, the community group from which Kate was asked to stand - https://curtinindependent.com/
The national Community Independents Project, steered by Cathy McGowan and team - https://communityindependents.com.au/
If you’d like to hear my conversation with Cathy McGowan from last year, as this independents movement was gathering momentum, head to episode 85 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/085-politics-that-works
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Clinton Walker is a Traditional Custodian of the incredible Murujuga (or Burrup Peninsula), on the north-west coast of Australia. You might recall my conversations with archaeologist Peter Veth and the co-authors of Songlines, Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale, last year. They all related back to this place – where the Songlines start, as Clinton puts it. So at the end of last year, as my family and I headed south from the Kimberley, Clinton and I met up to record a yarn for the Clean State podcast, the spin-off series from The RegenNarration specific to my home state of Western Australia. Some of you may have had a listen. It’s a shorter snappier format. But on this particular hot summer morning, with so much at stake here right now, and so much to appreciate about what he’s up to, Clinton and I settled in for an extended chat.
So here’s the rest of what we recorded together. I’ve patched in my intro from the Clean State podcast here first, to help set the scene for you:
Murujuga houses the largest rock art collection in the world – around one million petroglyphs, some dating back about 40,000 years. The World Heritage nomination for this place is a shoe-in, unless it’s jeopardised by current industry expansion plans – most notoriously, the Scarborough Gas Field proposal, currently being challenged in court and elsewhere, with the stakes running far beyond this incredible ancient place.
But there are better ways to go about things here. And Traditional Custodian Clinton Walker is uniquely placed to say. He was a highly paid technician with one of the mining companies here, but he ultimately couldn't bear the harm it was causing his Country. He now runs an extremely successful tour operation called Ngurrangga Tours, and is living the message that sustainable industries such as Indigenous cultural tourism are enormously beneficial - economically, for Country, and for bringing our cultures together. So join us, as Clinton sits us down on a very special part of his Country for that yarn.
This conversation was recorded on Country at the Murujuga National Park, on 13 December 2021.
Note: The Cultural Heritage Reform Bill has since passed the WA State Parliament, without alteration.
Title slide image: Clinton Walker (supplied).
You can see more photos on The RegenNarration website (link below).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia (featured in the previous episode) - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/
Discover more: To hear the rest of my conversation with Clinton, tune in to episode 9 of the Clean State podcast, a spin-off series from The RegenNarration specific to Western Australia – https://www.cleanstate.org.au/podcast
Ngurrangga Tours - https://www.ngurrangga.com.au/
If you’d like to hear my conversations with the co-authors of Songlines: The Power & the Promise, Lynne Kelly and Margo Neale, tune into episodes 92 and 93 – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/092-songlines-lynne-kelly and https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/093-songlines-margo-neale
And for more on the sophisticated migration of First Nations peoples to and across these lands, and the extraordinary natural-cultural value of Murujuga – and more on how to resolve the current planning issues too – tune into my chat with Peter Veth for episode 83 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/083-regenerating-in-deep-time
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Damon Gameau has been a wonderful presence in so many of our lives for a couple of decades now - from his prominent acting career, to his transformation into an award-winning film-maker. There’s his timeless Tropfest winner Animal Beatbox, through to his legendary documentary features That Sugar Film and 2040. Now there’s a new film about to launch, with the vision honed towards 2030. This vital decade. It’s another master work – a short film with a big story. It’s called Regenerating Australia.
Along with the film, there’ll be another huge outreach effort, a community projects funding program, and more. This time, Damon draws on visions expressed by communities around Australia, uniting on key themes across political and other divides. This is our take off point, and from there our conversation weaves through some of the many layers of the film, our country, and our respective personal paths. From what Regeneration means, and how to protect it, to the practicalities of how the film will roll out in the lead up to a pivotal and promising federal election.
The community independents movement continues to gather momentum, along with so many other aspects of regeneration. Though I wondered, given Damon’s focus on these stories of regeneration, how we might hold the darker aspects. And how his friendship with the late great Aboriginal performer David Gulpilil shaped his understanding of story, from the perspective of this Country’s first story-tellers.
You’ll also hear a sneak preview of the beautiful soundtrack to the new film.
This conversation was recorded online on 11 February 2022.
Title slide image: Damon Gameau (supplied).
Music: Regeneration (from the Regenerating Australia soundtrack), composed by Amelia Barden
Discover more: Regenerating Australia - https://www.regeneratingaustralia.com/
If you’d like to hear my conversation with Cathy McGowan that Damon referred to, head to episode 85 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/085-politics-that-works
And you’ll find the Songlines book we talk about here - https://www.booktopia.com.au/songlines-margo-neale/book/9781760761189.html
Hear more of Amelia Barden, composer of the Regenerating Australia film soundtrack - http://www.ameliabarden.com/
You can also hear my previous conversations with Damon on the podcast for episodes 30 (just as 2040 was being finished), 38 (when it premiered in Perth) and 77 (when 2021 began) - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Dianne Haggerty probably doesn’t need an introduction these days. When last on the podcast for episode 68 around 18 months ago, I’d come to visit Di and husband Ian to learn about their world breakthrough regenerative farming operation. You’ll have heard them mentioned in a number of episodes since (and featured on ABC TV and elsewhere). Their natural intelligence ethos, fierce grace and incredible story of regeneration ignite the imagination. And their episode remains among the top 6 most listened to on this podcast.
So when we were heading south from the Kimberley late last year, we dropped in. Join us under the stars on a warm December evening, for a quick catch up on some of the brilliant and challenging aspects of their year. Their regeneration of country continues apace, but there’s a clarion call here too. And fittingly it has echoes of Petrine McCrohan in the previous episode, noting that one was recorded in the region of the Haggerty’s old haunt and their transformation.
This conversation was recorded on 23 December 2021.
Title slide image: Dianne and Ian Haggerty, showing our young fella the ropes on one of the repaired headers (pic: Anthony James). You can see a few other pics on the website.
Music: The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Rockin’ in the 80s, by Dr Sparkles (sourced from the Free Music Archive) - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dr_Sparkles/rockin-in-the-80s/rockin-in-the-80s
Get more: To hear my extended conversation with Di and Ian back on the farm in 2020, and see a range of links and photos, head to episode 68 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
The influential Textile Exchange Report, hot off the press, that the Haggerty’s were engaged extensively in: ‘Regenerative Agriculture Landscape Analysis’ – https://textileexchange.org/regenerative-agriculture-landscape-analysis/
And my young fella did his own podcast episode with Di, so of course I’m including that link here too! ‘How do you harvest all this (and can I drive the harvesting machine)?’ - https://anchor.fm/yeshe-james
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Petrine McCrohan is the founder of Bridging the Landscapes – our inner and outer landscapes. This has emerged from spending the best part of the last 20 years in the Kimberley, engaged in empowering processes and skilled therapeutic interventions. She’s been doing much of this work as a group facilitator and direct mentor to Aboriginal communities and social enterprise developers. And in the process, she’s observed and assisted a transformation in how initiatives and enterprises are being designed. The focus is increasingly on healing inter-generational trauma. And the economies that this shift is successfully restoring and creating constitute a model not just for other Aboriginal communities, but for us all.
Petrine’s journey to the Kimberley stemmed from her own experiences of trauma and transformation. She left an established life in Victoria when in her 40s, pulled and guided by ‘invisible threads’ and formative encounters. And she’s come to believe and witness that healing from trauma is the window through which purposeful, healthy and prosperous lives and societies are forged. We exchange notes on a few fascinating corroborating cases and experiences too, that suggest she’s not alone
Join us at sunset beside the spectacular Bandilngan (Windjana Gorge), a 35O million year old Devonian Reef, ancient home to the Bunuba people, cornerstone to the story of Bunuba warrior Jandamarra, drawcard on the famed Gibb River Road, and an area pivotal to Petrine’s journey. And right on topic, you’ll hear how the conversation sub-consciously rolls with the shifting light and sound around us.
This conversation was recorded at Bandilngan (Windjana Gorge) in the West Kimberley on 6 September 2021.
Title slide image: Anthony James and Petrine McCrohan with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River in the background, just outside of Fitzroy Crossing (pic: Olivia Cheng).
See the website for more photos from this spectacular Country.
Music: The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Flamenco Rhythm, by Sunsearcher (sourced from the Free Music Archive) – https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sunsearcher/Sunsearcher_Spirit/05_-_Flamenco_Rhythm
Get more: Petrine’s LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/petrine-mccrohan-3b800453/?originalSubdomain=au
Yiriman Women On-Country Enterprises - https://www.yirimanwomen.org/
Dillon Andrews’ Bungoolee Tours - https://www.bungoolee.com.au/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Jess Beckerling is Campaign Director of the West Australian Forest Alliance (WAFA), and much more besides. She’s a highly respected figure here in the southern reaches of Western Australia, by both those who would traditionally have prioritised conservation, and those who might not have. I spoke with Jess back in July last year for the Clean State podcast, a spin-off series from The RegenNarration specific to WA. At the time, WAFA was seizing the opportunity it sensed to finally end native forest logging in WA.
With the comprehensive and poetically conceived Forests for Life Plan in hand, WAFA has been showing how we can stop bleeding finances, forests, farmlands and communities, and back in the growing suite of ecologically and economically beneficial industries. Come September, the WA government agreed – and in an Australian first announced the end of native forest logging in this state.
So we kick off the podcast for the new year with this massive story. You’ll hear the last 15 minutes or so of my conversation with Jess, which closes with a few bonus minutes that just couldn’t fit in Clean State’s cut. Then I’ve patched in Jess’s media statement from Parliament House on the dramatic day of the government’s announcement (a few minutes long), along with some of her comments to the journo’s present.
More on Jess: Jess lives in the forests on the South Coast of WA and is involved with a number of regional environmental issues, particularly related to climate, water and sustainable agriculture. She first became involved in forest conservation in 1997 when she joined the Giblett forest blockade near Pemberton. Jess lived in forest blockade camps for 3 years, winning the State Government's Youth Leadership Award in recognition of her commitment to the maintenance of nonviolence in the camps. As well as forest conservation Jess has played an important role in local conservation issues around Denmark and Walpole. She has been the convener of WAFA since 2011 and was awarded the Conservation Council's Bessie Rischbieth award in 2015 for her commitment over many years to the protection of the environment. Late last year, she was recognised as the Environmentalist of the Year by the Bob Brown Foundation.
This conversation was recorded online with Jess speaking from her office in the south coast town of Denmark on 13 July 2021 (Australian time). The media statement was recorded outside Parliament House in Perth by Clean State WA on 8 September 2021.
Title slide image: Jess Beckerling (supplied).
Music: A Forests Dream, by Cloudjumper, sourced from the Free Music Archive - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cloudjumper/PUSH_IT_-_Live_EP/Cloudjumper_-_PUSH_IT_-_Live_EP_-_05_A_forests_Dream
Get more: To hear the rest of my conversation with Jess, tune in to episode 8 of the Clean State podcast, a spin-off series from The RegenNarration specific to Western Australia - https://www.cleanstate.org.au/podcast_episode_8_forests_for_life
The plan and campaign website - https://forestsforlife.org.au/
WA Forest Alliance website - https://wafa.org.au/
A 2 minute short film from Gondwana Link featuring Jess talking about the decades-long movement to protect the forests - https://vimeo.com/482458677?embedded=false&source=vimeo_logo&owner=106126840
A 2-minute film by Luke Sweet featuring beekeeper Mikey Cernotta making the case for the Plan - https://vimeo.com/490559704
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is our customary sign-off episode for the year – a package of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2021, accompanied by some of the music and sounds of Country you heard along the way. Here's the 'track list':
• To our podcast theme song The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra - Damon Gameau (ep 77), Jeff Pow & Michelle McManus (ep 78)
• To the sounds of Country at one of the magnificent restoration sites at Twin Creeks - Keith Bradby (ep 79)
• To River Feeling by Kalaji - Nicol Ragland (ep 80), Tim Winton (ep 81), Geoff Bastyan (ep 82), Peter Veth (ep 83) & Anne Poelina (ep 84)
• To Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae - Cathy McGowan (ep 85), Stephen Jenkinson (ep 86), Willem Ferwerda (ep 87), Gaala Watson & Rob Pekin (ep 88), Courtney Young & Ian Congdon (ep 89), Robert Kennedy, Kate Raworth & Marieke van Doorninck (ep 90)
• Lynne Kelly (ep 92)
• To Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp - Margo Neale (ep 93), Mark Jones (ep 94), Leon Khan & Owen James (ep 95), Paul Hawken (ep 96)
• We Can Change the World (The Regeneration Song) by AY Young and Jonathan Russell of The Head & The Heart
• To Liyan by Kalaji – Alessandro Pelizzon (ep 97) & Anne Poelina (ep 98)
• To Jeremiah Johnson – Katherine Trebeck & Mike Salvaris (ep 99), Chris Henggeler (ep 100), Eva Orner (ep 101)
• To the sounds of Nyul Nyul Country - Bruno Dann & partner Marion (ep 102)
• To Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no.15 in D major op.28 "Pastoral" - I. Allegro, by Karine Gilanyan (sourced from the Free Music Archive) - Charles Massy (ep 103)
• Fate, in full, by Stephen Jenkinson (from ep 86)
• Closing the year with the close of our theme song, The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Title pic: Regenerating creeks, wetlands and groundcover at Kachana Station in the Kimberley (Anthony James).
With thanks to all the wonderful musicians who generously granted permission for their music to be heard here.
Get more: To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to our website https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
The RegenNarration is an independent, ad-free, freely available podcast, thanks to the generous support of listeners. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a podcast patron, donor or partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you again in 2022!
Welcome to the final conversation for 2021, featuring globally renowned doyen of regenerative agriculture, Charles Massy. This best-selling author of Call of the Reed Warbler has recently written for Paul Hawken’s NYT best-seller Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation. And perhaps less predictably, he’s also been busy writing a new kids’ book. It’s called The Last Dragon. It’s a beautiful work of art, thanks to illustrator Mandy Foot, and the imagery Charlie conjures of an elusive fellow dweller in the land he calls home. And there’s an even bigger story behind how this came to be his next volume, and why we might see more like it.
I also introduce this episode with some great news on two key stories we’ve been following on the podcast – the donkeys at Kachana Station, and efforts to protect Ningaloo Reef and Exmouth Gulf. And I close with some last words from me for 2021.
This episode marks what would have been the 78th birthday of the bloke who introduced me to systems thinking and living 21 years ago, the late Professor Frank Fisher. This Aussie legend became a treasured mentor of mine, and a great mate. Last year, we marked the occasion with Allan Savory on the podcast. The year before, another globally influential systems thinker in Hazel Henderson. Continuing the tradition, I’m very happy to be introducing Charlie this year.
This conversation was recorded across some very remote Country (mostly without a hitch!) on 19 November 2021 at 6DBY Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation in WA, with Charlie at home at Severn Park in NSW.
Title slide image: The Last Dragon himself, illustrated by Mandy Foot (from the book).
Music: The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
The tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Beethoven’s Piano Sonata no.15 in D major op.28 "Pastoral" - I. Allegro, by Karine Gilanyan (sourced from the Free Music Archive) - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Karine_Gilanyan/Beethovens_Sonata_No_15_in_D_Major/Beethoven_-_Piano_Sonata_nr15_in_D_major_op28_Pastoral_-_I_Allegro
Get more: You can buy the book here - https://bookshop.nla.gov.au/book/last-dragon.do
And you can hear my conversation with Charlie at Severn Park in late 2018 at https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-an-underground-insurgency
There’s also a live conversation event featuring Charlie, with David and Frances Pollock from Wooleen Station, that attracted around 300 people in Melbourne earlier in 2018 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/016-grassroots-revolution
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a podcast patron. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 102 (part 2) featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with Nyul Nyul Traditional Custodian, Bruno Dann, and partner Marion, at Twin Lakes Cultural Park. These 20 minutes are a real highlight. We pick up the conversation with evidence of the original circular economy, when being shown a fig leaf that feels like sandpaper. We go on to talk about the best of the regenerative outcomes they’ve observed at Twin Lakes, the famed international companies they’ve turned down, and the turning point for them almost a decade ago. Then it’s the profound experience of arriving at the old ceremonial grounds.
You can hear the rest of our conversation starting with the main episode, ‘Twin Lakes Cultural Park: A return to Country, restoration & incredible bush products success’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/102-twin-lakes-cultural-park
And tune into the special Extra with Marion on her remarkable journey from Sydney to the Kimberley, wherever podcasts are found or directly at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/102-extra-marions-unlikely-journey-from-sydney-to-the/id1236423380?i=1000543673274
And with the rest of the second and final part of episode 102, ‘People Want the Story: Heading out to the ceremonial grounds’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/102-part2-people-want-the-story
Title slide pic: Bruno, Anthony and Marion walking out through regenerated Country to the old ceremonial grounds (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a podcast patron. Just head to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Welcome to part 2 of episode 102 as we join Nyul Nyul Traditional Custodian Bruno Dann, and partner Marion, on a walk out to the old people’s camping, hunting and ceremonial grounds. To even write these words, I feel a wave rise within me. This was an extraordinary experience. The conversations spring from the old trails we tread, connecting back in with some of the threads from part 1, and charting the journey of how Twin Lakes has emerged as such a compelling story.
I’ve experimented a bit with this episode too. I’ve recorded Bruno and Marion as they were situated physically around me. This means you’ll hear Bruno in your right ear, and Marion in your left. See how it feels, and let me know if you like.
So join us as we gather back at camp at Twin Lakes Cultural Park, with Bruno and Marion. For a story that further highlights the enormous possibilities for regenerative economies and cultures right across the Kimberley and beyond.
Part 2 of this episode was recorded on-location at Twin Lakes Cultural Park, on Nyul Nyul Country, on the Dampier Peninsula in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, on 6 August 2021.
Title slide pic: Anthony and Bruno by the old ceremonial grounds at Twin Lakes Cultural Park (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Get more: You can hear more of Bruno, Marion and I in conversation in the main episode: ‘Twin Lakes Cultural Park: A return to Country, restoration and incredible bush products success’. You’ll find a link out to Twin Lakes Cultural Park in the show notes there too. And an extensive selection of photos - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/102-twin-lakes-cultural-park
Have a listen to the special Extra with Marion too – hers is a brilliant story in its own right - wherever podcasts are found.
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This special extra to episode 102 features an impromptu conversation I had with Marion by the fire on our first night there, before the morning walks. It wasn’t intended to be recorded - I’d just been recording some ambient sounds when we got talking. We chat about Marion’s life, and some of her perspective on this incredible story that none of them saw coming – though an elder had prophesised it.
Marion’s is a remarkable story in itself, with generations of her family steeped in achievement and adventure, and her journey to this place charted through a series of extraordinary and unlikely encounters. I’m very happy she gave me permission to share this with you. So join us by the camp fire at Twin Lakes.
Note that because this wasn't intended to be recorded, there is some swearing on occasion - just in case you'd rather not have little people hear that.
You can hear more of Marion in conversation, with Bruno and I, in Part 1 of the main episode: ‘Twin Lakes Cultural Park: A return to Country, restoration & incredible bush products success’. You’ll find a link out to Twin Lakes in the show notes there too. And a selection of photos - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/102-twin-lakes-cultural-park
And stay tuned for part 2 of this episode out next week, featuring an incredibly moving visit to the old hunting and ceremonial grounds, still so clearly etched into the land and spirit of this place.
Also note that among the other voices you might hear in the background, Marion’s sister Fiona chimes in when talking of their childhood.
Title slide pic: Marion at Twin Lakes Cultural Park (pic: Anthony James).
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Bruno Dann is a Traditional Custodian of Nyul Nyul Country, and together with partner Marion, they’ve spent a little over 20 years creating the incredible success story that is Twin Lakes Cultural Park. Lying to the north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula in far north Western Australia, Twin Lakes had been stripped of its First Peoples, and badly neglected. But Bruno still found a way to learn from the old people on this Country when he was a boy, and later returned as an older man.
While facing the heartbreak of loss here, he set about regenerating his Country, its culture, and abundant wild harvest. Together with Marion, and in the face of all kinds of challenges, they’ve forged a successful business selling a growing range of bush products, and employing hundreds of people. And all through a series of unexpected connections with people and companies they regard more as family – doing business in a way where business doesn’t quite feel like the right word.
Bruno and Marion haven’t been on a podcast before. So what a privilege this was. Essentially, the three of us just put microphones on while we walked Country on two consecutive mornings. What emerged on both mornings was so distinct, rare and profound, I had to share both with you. So this episode will come to you in two parts. What you’ll hear today is our conversation on the first morning, as this cherished elder guides us through once again thriving Country. It’s an enthralling tour of land, sea, plants, animals, fire, business, politics, life stories and spirit.
So join us on Country for more of a sense of what’s at stake here right now, what’s working so well, and how we can back and explore more opportunities like this together – especially in a fraught native products space where new ways are sorely needed.
Note that the Jock they refer to is of MasterChef fame. And while the wind plays a little havoc at times, and Bruno was suffering a bit of a cough, none of that diminished a very special experience I’m humbled to share with you.
More on Bruno: he is also an Indigenous Artist, Indigenous Landcare and Culture Specialist and the first Chairperson of Manowan Aboriginal Corporation.
Part 1 of this episode was recorded on-location at Twin Lakes Cultural Park, on Nyul Nyul Country, on the Dampier Peninsula in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, on 5 August 2021.
With thanks to filmmaker and podcast patron Todd Delfs for introducing us to Bruno and Marion.
Title slide image: Marion, Anthony & Bruno on the salt flats of Twin Lakes Cultural Park (pic: Olivia Cheng).
You can see more photos of our time together on The RegenNarration website.
Music: The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra. The tune accompanying the intro and outro is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: Twin Lakes Cultural Park – http://twinlakes.net.au/
Tune in to the special Extra to this episode out shortly, and part 2 of this episode out next week.
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a podcast patron. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Eva Orner is an Academy and Emmy award winning filmmaker. While she lives in the US these days, she’s from Australia, and was here when this country burned so horrifically in the bushfires of 2019 and 2020. Like a lot of us, Eva was struck not just by the fires, but by the defensive political intransigence that persists to this day. So she joined forces with a team that includes the production company of fellow countrywoman Cate Blanchett, to produce and direct the new documentary film Burning. It recently premiered in Toronto, Europe, COP26 and Sydney, where it picked up the Sustainable Future Award.
The Guardian describes it as: ‘one of those rare documentaries that boils your blood and rattles your bones, leaving viewers longing for and (hopefully) demanding political change…. it is the documentary Australia and – I think it is fair to say – the entire world deserves…’
To tell you the truth, I’m often wary of watching films like this. I partly feel like I don’t need to rub my nose in the disasters, given I spend my days immersed in all this. But I found it a brilliant film. Unsurprisingly, I guess. Eva is a master of her craft. But especially for how it emerges from the stories of those involved, to a deepening sense of the humanity and care most people share for each other and their places, and the sheer guts and courage that can inspire us to change our hopelessly detached political culture and related trajectory.
I found where we end up here to be particularly powerful and instructive, courtesy of Bruce Pascoe’s place in the film, and its multiple connections to the previous episode with Chris Henggeler. On how we’re all challenged to learn anew now, in a time of degraded landscape and climate, including how to holistically manage burning.
The film blurb reads: Burning takes an unflinching look at Australia’s catastrophic ‘Black Summer’ bushfires, as well as government inaction on climate change and media perceptions, posing questions about how we move forward as a nation to ensure this piece of history is never repeated.
This episode was recorded at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation, with Eva in South Dakota shooting her next film, on 3 November 2021 (Australian time).
Title slide image: Eva Orner on set (pic: supplied).
You'll see a selection of other photos from the film and its making on The RegenNarration website(all pics supplied).
Music: The System, by The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra. Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.
Get more: The trailer to Burning – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTfyD7ALJtU
The film will launch online on Amazon Prime on 26 November 2021.
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a podcast patron. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 100 (part 2) featuring the last 15 minutes or so of my conversation with pioneering regenerative pastoralist, Chris Henggeler, on-location at Kachana Station. In some senses, our entire visit to Kachana is distilled into this excerpt. We pick up our conversation where I ask Chris what he needs. A nice initial exchange gives way to some profoundly moving reflections on the value of a life. And that sets up the last minutes of our time together, talking about the temporary stay-of-execution on the donkeys, and how excited he remains about the incredible opportunities for the next generations of land doctors.
You can hear the rest of our conversation starting with the main episode, ‘Wanted Land Doctors: Rehydrating landscapes, reversing desertification and rebuilding the wealth of country’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/100-wanted-land-doctors
You can follow the rest of our time together on this visit with the special Extra out to where the donkeys do their work – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/100-extra-crunch-time-for-this-great-regeneration-story
And with the rest of the second and final part of episode 100 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/100-part2-the-value-of-life
Title slide pic: the incredible before and after photographs of the homestead and surrounds at Kachana Station (pic: from a booklet compiled by the family when Allan Savory visited).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Today’s final stanza from our visit to Kachana Station features a very personal conversation with the pioneering regenerative pastoralist, Chris Henggeler. It felt akin to a kind of life statement in the end. It wasn’t scripted that way, of course. It just seemed to be the culmination of having spent ten rich days together, which also included the looming deadline to shoot the donkeys, Chris’s birthday, and the birth of his third grandchild Ava.
We end up talking about things like the viability of regeneration, true wealth, and changing tack. And as Chris looks to hand over the reins, he invites the next generations of land doctors to realise the ultimate potential of the restoration of life’s self-organising processes everywhere.
Join us, as we sit down at the homestead and press record on our last conversation from this visit - a portrait of abundance against a profile of extinction.
Dedicated to Ava, the third grandchild of Chris and Jacqueline, who was born while we were at Kachana.
You can hear more of Chris and I in conversation in the main episode: ‘Wanted Land Doctors: Re-hydrating landscapes, reversing desertification & rebuilding wealth’. You’ll find a series of links in the show notes there too (including to a special Extra out where the donkeys do their work). And an extensive selection of photos - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/100-wanted-land-doctors
Title slide pic: Chris Henggeler, as a younger bloke (pic: supplied).
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
The day after our extended conversation in the gorge, featured in the main episode, we headed out to where the donkeys do their work. As mentioned in that main episode, it’s crunch time in many ways for this great story of regeneration. And by extension, for all of us, as a shoot order hangs over the donkeys’ heads. So we head out to take a closer look for ourselves at how the Henggelers are managing these wild donkeys for regeneration.
It’s a fascinating deep dive into how this works, with some moving exchanges on the sentience of these creatures, and the possibilities available to us if we can find a way to work differently with them. And with each other.
Let’s jump in the beat up old ute, and head over to the upper ranges for a walk.
Dedicated to Ava, Chris and Jacqueline’s third grandchild who was born on the morning of this conversation.
You can hear more of Chris and I in conversation, from the days prior to this journey to the donkeys, in the main episode: ‘Wanted Land Doctors: Re-hydrating landscapes, reversing desertification & rebuilding wealth’. You’ll find a series of links in the show notes there too. And an extensive selection of photos (I’ve added a few more today too, from where we were talking in this Extra) - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/100-wanted-land-doctors
Title slide pic: Chris Henggeler and Anthony James on an upper range where the donkeys do their work (pic: Olivia Cheng).
Thanks as always to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Tens of millions of ‘pests’ degrade lands and waters in Australia alone – pigs, goats, camels, buffalos, donkeys. Cruel, wasteful, expensive, mostly futile and often counter-productive culling programs are no solution. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if some of those large wild herbivores could be harnessed towards regeneration?
This is the story of a family that has regenerated an incredible patch of country, and for 20 years that has incorporated and relied on wild donkeys. The bond these animals share with this Station family is clear. But the state department recently ordered the family to gun them down. It’s a painful flashpoint. One of the great stories of regeneration is on the line, and by extension, the potential for next generations to build on it, further restoring landscapes at scale for all our benefit.
Chris Henggeler and his family manage Kachana Station in a remote pocket of the East Kimberley, only accessible by foot or air. They took responsibility for this desertified and abandoned country, and have achieved so much. Yet with still vast lands desertifying around them, and so much opportunity to build on models like Kachana, Chris gave a presentation earlier this year called ‘Wanted Land Doctors’. It was a powerful invitation for the next generations to join the fray, and how rest of us can help them do it.
The model areas at Kachana feel like an oasis. But imagine this being the norm. Something very special is happening here. And a significant aspect of it is in jeopardy, when it could be a great catalyst for further regeneration. As Judith Schwartz, renowned author of The Reindeer Chronicles, says: we could be a world leader off the back of developments like this. And she’s not alone.
My family and I spent a couple of days here with the podcast last time, back in 2018, and felt transformed. We spent ten days this time, to delve more deeply into this great tale of regeneration, and see for myself whether the donkey shoot order is a necessary evil, or as Chris argues, an enormous error in regeneration, at a time when we can least afford it.
I’ve gone the full distance on this one, with a couple of parts to release, as a) it’s so rare I’m here, b) it’s so vitally important to discuss, and c) there just might be opportunities stemming out of this with some of you.
In the main episode here, we head out to the Station in the old Cessna light plane, before a short evening stroll on arrival. Then come morning, Chris and I head out into the gorge behind the homestead for an extended walk.
This episode was recorded at Kachana Station in the East Kimberley, in the far north east of Western Australia, throughout the week of 13 September 2021.
Title slide image: Chris Henggeler on our gorge walk at Kachana Station (pic: Anthony James).
You'll find an extensive selection of photographs on the episode web page.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra. The tune accompanying the intro is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: Tune in to the special Extra to this episode out shortly, and the closing chapter to our time at Kachana, out next week.
And to hear more from our first visit to Kachana Station back in 2018, tune into episode 25.
The Kachana Station website - https://www.kachana-station.com/
And a blog and sequence of short videos with Chris on a webinar hosted by Biodiversity for Livable Climate (which also took place while we were at Kachana) - https://bio4climate.org/2021/10/23/kachana-station-a-home-for-donkey-led-restoration/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Momentum continues to build in our efforts to gear economies towards shared quality of life, rather than sheer quantity of stuff. With COP 26 starting in Glasgow next week, I reached out to Dr Katherine Trebeck for a sense of how it feels on the ground there, along with how the event might leverage more of that broader momentum. That’s our take-off point for looking at some of the significant shifts happening around the world in this space. And we’re joined again by Mike Salvaris, with a major update on the West Australian Development Index that featured in his Ministerial presentation in episode 55.
Dr Katherine Trebeck is a Senior Strategic Advisor for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (or WEAll) – a global collaboration she co-founded in 2018, the same year she co-founded WEAll Scotland. She has also instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments, previously developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index, and led Oxfam’s work downscaling Kate Raworth’s ‘doughnut economics’ for various countries. Katherine’s book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown-Up Economy (co-authored with Jeremy Williams) was published in early 2019.
The last time we spoke on this podcast was at one of the Australian events launching that book. And one of our guests that night was Mike Salvaris, a global leader in the development of wellbeing measures, and Director of the Australian National Development Index. So what’s happened in the two years since that event in the development of ‘wellbeing economies’, and this prospective pilot Development Index in WA?
This conversation was recorded online at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation on Nyikina Country in the West Kimberley, with Katherine at home in Glasgow and Mike in Melbourne, 12 October 2021.
Title slide image: Katherine and Mike against a Scottish backdrop (pics of Katherine and Scotland are from Katherine's website, and the one of Mike is from our Zoom conversation).
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: Wellbeing Economy Alliance - https://wellbeingeconomy.org
Australian National Development Index (ANDI) - http://www.andi.org.au
Katherine’s website - https://katherinetrebeck.com/
You can hear my first conversation with Katherine in episode 29, and on stage with Mike for Katherine’s book launch in episode 48. Mike’s other previous appearances, on a panel and in his pivotal Ministerial presentation, are featured in episodes 6 and 55 respectively - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is a special bonus episode of sorts, a live conversation event with Nyikina Warrwa elder, Dr Anne Poelina. We last spoke on the podcast for episode 84 back in May, on the launch of Regenerative Songlines Australia, and resolved to catch up on her country here in the Kimberley later in the year. We ended up doing that at this live event I was honoured to host the Q&A for - a screening of the film we also talked about in May, The Serpent’s Tale. It’s the story of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, its ancient Country, its First Peoples, its First Law, its need for recognition and protection, and its abundant opportunities for new economies, and as Anne puts it, the overarching need for sustainable lifeways on Country for Aboriginal people.
I wasn’t sure if this would turn into a podcast episode. But when the previous episode with Alessandro Pelizzon revealed such profound and significant global implications stemming from Anne’s work and what’s happening here, it had to be. All the more, given the quality and consequence of the dialogue that night. Given, then, that this is in addition to the usual weekly releases, I initially thought I’d produce a shorter summary version of the conversation. I did edit it down a little, partly due to sound issues, but the conversation gets more profound as it goes, and it’s so connected and applicable to dialogue happening right around this country and elsewhere. We’re so in this together.
4.10 - Anne and Anthony.
18.35 - Mark Norval, nationally recognised artist and teacher in the region for 40 years.
19.55 - Amanda Dexter, Shire CEO.
24.40 - Peter McCumstie, former Shire President.
29.50 - Anthony James.
32.40 - Professor of Sustainability Peter Newman.
35.10 - Eleanor, local Derby woman.
37.30 - Geoff Haerewa, Shire President.
44.10 - Mark Norval again.
47.10 – Unknown.
49.25 - Amanda Dexter again.
51.30 - Peter McCumstie again.
55.30 - Victor, Anne’s old Bunuba school mate who was born in the river.
56.40 – Final words from Anne.
For those less familiar with Anne, she is Chair of the esteemed Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, an international award winner, has multiple postgraduate degrees, and over 30 years’ experience in Indigenous health, education, language and community development.
This conversation was recorded live at the Sporties in Derby, on Nyikina Country, 9 October 2021.
With thanks to the Red Shed Derby Women’s Collective, Harry Jakamarra and 6DBY Larrkardi Radio.
CORRECTION: Where Anne talks about the sacred site on her country as being 100 million years old, she later corrected this – it’s a ridge that is 20 million years old, on bedrock that is 200 million years old.
Title slide image: Dr Anne Poelina, live on the night (pic: Chris Lean).
You can see a selection of other photos from the event on The RegenNarration website.
Music: River Feeling, at the start of the episode, and Liyan, at the end, both by Anne’s son Mark Coles-Smith, composing as Kalaji (joined in Liyan by the wonderful Ursula Yovich).
Get more: Dr Anne Poelina - https://www.majala.com.au/anne-poelina
You’re invited to a special event on 26 October 2021, for Regenerative Songlines Australia, featuring Anne - https://events.humanitix.com/regen-songlines-26oct
The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council – https://martuwarrafitzroyriver.org/
Trailer for the film, The Serpent’s Tale - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NgiiGEBbtw
A new short film on elder and artist Mervyn Street, by Sarah Laborde (who also contributed to The Serpent’s Tale) - https://www.nespnorthern.edu.au/publications/veins-of-the-country-video/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
There has been a rush this year of landmark court decisions on climate change, ruling on duties of care, emissions reductions, and other actions for corporations and governments, in Australia and around the world. It’s another sign this generation is changing things, and fast. And some of the broader change afoot is even more powerful than what’s hitting the headlines.
This is one of those rapid systemic developments we can easily take for granted. In just over a decade we have witnessed the incredible rise in ecological jurisprudence and the rights of nature. The notion of ecocide is now being officially tabled, there are a number of famous instances of rivers being granted legal rights, and all this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s bubbling up everywhere. In just twelve years it’s gone from whether this could happen, to how it can best happen. And just a few years ago, out of a conversation between today’s guest and Nyikina elder Dr Anne Poelina, a concept was landed upon that just might unlock the door to colonial law finally recognising First Law. And more profoundly still, in a way that involves us all in understanding the depths of what that means, the enormous gifts it offers, and how it might just end up transforming everything.
Dr Alessandro Pelizzon is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University. He is one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, he has been an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature programme, and supported the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging phenomenon of rights of nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception.
This conversation was recorded on 2 September 2021, with thanks to the team at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation for the use of their studio.
Title slide image: Alessandro Pelizzon (supplied).
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra The tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Get more: On Dr Alessandro Pelizzon - https://www.scu.edu.au/about/university-council/council-members/alessandro-pelizzon/
For an hilarious and poignant connection with this episode, listen back from about the 28-minute mark of my conversation with Margo Neale in episode 93, ‘Songlines’, on how First Law was made.
Alessandro’s music choices were: - Souad Massi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souad_Massi - Faun - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faun_%28band%29
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is a very special extra to episode 96 with Paul Hawken, the globally renowned environmentalist, author, entrepreneur and activist. I say extra, but it’s really a second part, a whole conversation in its own right. Some of the story behind the story. This is essentially the middle hour and a bit of our conversation, where we deep-dove into some of the keystone themes, if you like, of Regeneration - the themes that enable all the other themes. Or disable them, if absent or mis-placed. Some of this is based on what’s in the book, some on what I noted isn’t in it.
We pick up with a profound story Paul tells of an encounter he had with a Yupik woman from the Bering Strait region. This stemmed from where we spoke in the main episode of what gripped each of us most in Regeneration. We go on to delve into those keystone themes (mapped out below), before closing with some beautiful and revealing personal musings. Firstly, on how Paul approaches his days with Regeneration in mind. And then he offers us a rare glimpse ahead to his next book – the long-awaited final in this trilogy.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode (along with gaining access to links in the show notes) at ‘Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/096-regeneration
In case you want to hit up particular parts of our conversation, here’s a mapping of it (though the inter-weaving of each topic comes from listening in sequence):
1.40 - Meeting the Yupic woman 6.10 - The microbiome, water and rain making (naturally!) 10.40 - The ‘emergent technology’ of regenerative farmers 14.40 – Finding common ground with the water story (and what about water credits?) 19.40 – Is the term ‘regeneration’ being co-opted? 21.10 – De-polarising the meat question 30.40 – Are ‘fake meat’ and lab-grown plants a solution, or another industrial ultra-processed ‘food-like substance’? 39.40 – De-commodification (of everything?) 47.40 – The catch-22 of transition – will the rapid construction of buildings, renewables etc. avert catastrophe, or inadvertently speed it up? (We need to build a New York City a month for 40 years?) 57.40 – “Only 5% of current offsets actually sequester carbon.” So if offsets don’t cut it, maybe onsets will? (starting with Paul’s biggest regret in Drawdown) 63.40 – So what are we aiming for? What’s renewable energy for? Essentially, what’s a regenerative economy look like? (And was there ever going to be more on this in the book?) 69.40 – A sense of Paul’s daily life with Regeneration in mind (including some of the ‘making of’ Regeneration) 72.40 – A rare glimpse into the next book, the final in the trilogy (that was to be first)
Title slide pic: from the extraordinary Solutions page on the Regeneration website.
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 96 featuring the last 25 minutes or so of my conversation with the legendary environmentalist, activist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, plus a brilliant preview performance of The Regeneration Song! This really felt like a crescendo of sorts, as we neared the end of a conversation that delved deep over a few hours. The main episode that went out Monday is an edited version. The middle hour or so will be out next, as a special Extra this Monday. For now, if you want to start with a snapshot, or would just like to hear the end again (like I did), this excerpt is for you.
We pick up our conversation where Paul comments on stories being the only thing that change us. We go on to talk about the incredible online tools that have launched with the book, some brilliant stories where politics is being transformed, and what that and other stories in Regeneration tell us about how big change happens via the small. We all count in this. We go out with why Paul feels optimistic about what could be a ‘shocking’ few years ahead.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/096-regeneration
Title slide pic: Paul Hawken.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Preview Performance of We Can Change the World (The Regeneration Song), by AY Young & Jonathan Russell of The Head & The Heart.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This feels like a pivotal moment. Four years ago, legendary environmentalist, activist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, compiled the best-selling book Drawdown, a comprehensive plan for reversing global warming. That book changed the world in many ways. And his new one, the sequel to Drawdown, is creating another big wave. It’s called Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation, and just one week out, it’s already #6 in the New York Times best-seller list.
Regeneration is billed as the first book to describe the burgeoning regeneration movement spreading rapidly around the world. And like Drawdown, it doesn’t end at the book. The not-for-profit Regeneration organisation is developing an extraordinary set of online guides and resources, teaching materials and media productions to assist our efforts, whoever and wherever we are. If Drawdown was what-could-be-done, Regeneration is how-to-get-it-done. And that’s in a context where we’re still going backwards in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, our health, and other critical crises. And, most people in the world remain disengaged.
So how do we change this? How do we, as this one generation, engage the majority of humanity and fundamentally shift our collective course?
Paul and I recorded our first extended conversation together in a Melbourne warehouse in 2018. Join us again, connecting from the Kimberley to California, for a deeply felt, direct and uplifting conversation on Regeneration.
More on Paul and Drawdown:
Drawdown was a NYT bestseller, is published in 14 languages, has been used by heads of state, is part of the curriculum on every grade level from 4th grade to MIT graduate school, and is placed in a New Zealand hotel chain alongside the Gideon Bible.
Drawdown named the goal. Before the book was published, the goal and word were not mentioned in climate literature. The term drawdown is now in generic use, employed and referred to thousands of times a day, and the book’s conclusions became the “bible” for over a trillion dollars of funds managed by numerous financial institutions.
Paul Hawken is a bestselling author of eight books that have been published in thirty languages in more than fifty countries and have sold more than two million copies. Hawken is a renowned lecturer who has keynoted conferences and led workshops on the impact of commerce upon the environment, and has consulted with governments and corporations throughout the world.
This conversation was recorded on 30 September 2021 (Australian time), with thanks to the team at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation.
Title slide image: Regeneration book cover.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson We Can Change the World (The Regeneration Song), by AY Young and Jonathan Russell of The Head & The Heart
Get more: A special extra to this episode, where we deep-dive into some of the key themes of Regeneration - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/096-extra-a-deep-dive-into-regeneration
Regeneration, the not-for-profit organisation, including NEXUS and how to get hold of the book - https://regeneration.org/
The video of the preview performance of AY Young’s Regeneration anthem featured in the podcast - https://regeneration.org/news/210915-we-can-change-world-regeneration-anthem
More on Paul Hawken, including his full catalogue of books - https://paulhawken.com/
To listen to Paul and I speak back in 2018, head to episodes 13 and 14. I particularly recommend episode 13, on his life story - from being an 18 year old with Martin Luther King through to Drawdown.
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. Please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Community-owned media is a vital part of regeneration, and this is all the more true for First Nations communities. It’s a well-documented leverage point for attaining massive benefits for local and regional communities - which of course, ultimately, means all of us. The award-winning Larrkardi Radio in Derby, far north Western Australia, is a brilliant and resurgent case-in-point. With a 5-pronged boab out front, and a local, regional, national and now even global reach growing within.
Leon, Owen, Bekah, Sunimah and the crew are an inspiration. They’re engaging diverse communities, building understanding and opportunity, recording local artists and ancient Songlines, generating their own stories and systems, and amplifying some of the game-changing stuff happening here. Whether it’s with health outcomes, the vital success of the youth centre, or sparking the local women’s footy league that has since spread like wildfire across the Kimberley, and will feature on an ABC documentary soon. And if you’re wondering how much that matters, listen in.
As with so much we hear on this podcast, the team at Larrkardi are finding that what they do is bubbling up everywhere. A First Nations media movement gathers pace, helping to bring people alive, and communities and a country together.
Join us in the new podcast room at 6DBY Larrkardi Radio - your deadly Derby Station. Leon Khan is the trail blazing Indigenous health worker and coach of the Derby Tigers footy club, recruited to manage the station and unexpectedly finding his calling. And Owen Burns (or OJ) is the young guy who hated moving to Derby as a kid, but found his home there as a broadcaster from the age of 11.
This conversation was recorded at the station on 24 August 2021.
Title slide image: Larrkardi Radio in Derby (Anthony James). See the episode web page for more photos.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra The tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Get more: Stream 6DBY Larrkardi Radio from Derby, Western Australia - https://www.radio-australia.org/6dby-larrkardi-radio
Follow The Conversation podcast, produced at 6DBY, available on Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/show/5XzU66536LO8rUJMLf8p20
They’ve also just launched their YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3nkx-KURxuTZCQe0fVlwfw
First Nations Media Australia - https://firstnationsmedia.org.au/
IndigiTube – https://www.indigitube.com.au/
And there’ll be a community screening of The Serpent’s Tale, directed by my previous guest Mark Jones, in Derby on 9 October 2021, at the Sporties at 6.30pm.
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 94 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with award-winning Australian film-maker, Mark Jones. We pick up our conversation with perhaps the biggest question I had for Mark: on the back of his charting stories of cultural transformation and survival through enormous climactic and other shifts, can we do it again? And of course, how? The answer, inevitably, is far from a straight line, but it is instructive. And forms the backbone of his epic film currently in production, Stories in Stone.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode 94, ‘Stories in Stone: What the ancients are telling us, with award-winning film-maker Mark Jones’.
Title slide pic: Roebuck Bay in Broome (Anthony James).
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or supporting patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Mark Jones is a crocodile handling, campaign building, award-winning Australian film-maker. He has been living and working extensively in the Kimberley for nearly 30 years, since unexpectedly becoming a novice camera operator with revered adventure film maker Malcolm Douglas. Mark develops stories and films with deep underlying messages that reflect this very special part of the world, and its increasingly important part in where we go from here as a society and civilisation. And all that is coming out in both his films and activism to profound effect.
Mark has helped lead one of the most formative and successful campaigns in Australian history. And he’s collaborated with some of the greats in Australian film and television, also producing for some of the larger international TV broadcasters including the BBC, and NHK in Japan. The WA State Library will archive his collection in 2022.
Most recently, Mark directed The Serpent’s Tale, the spectacular half-hour film produced in collaboration with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, that Anne Poelina and I talked about in episode 84. Now he’s onto making the epic and vital Stories in Stone, collaborating with other previous guests on this podcast like Lynne Kelly (ep 92) and Albert Wiggan (ep 34). It’s the culmination of a life’s work to date, on what science and traditional knowledge are showing us, about the messages left by our ancient ancestors for future generations.
This is the first in a series of episodes on-location in the Kimberley – a region often described as one of the last great remaining wildernesses left on the planet. To the Original people, as the Stories in Stone blurb puts it, it’s seen as ‘Country’, a vast Cultural landscape where story, song, geography and art meld into an epic story with no beginning… and no end.
This conversation was recorded by the mud flats of Roebuck Bay in Broome, on 2 August 2021.
Title slide image: Mark Jones (supplied).
You can see a selection of spectacular photographs by Mark on The RegenNarration website.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Get more: Mark Jones website - https://www.markjonesfilms.com.au/
The Serpent’s Tale trailer (stay tuned to the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council for more on the launch of the film on the festival circuit soon – and note there’ll be a community screening in Derby, Western Australia on 9 October 2021) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NgiiGEBbtw
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a donor or a patron of the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support, and follow the prompts. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episodes 92 and 93, parts 1 and 2 of Songlines: Combining the most powerful knowledge systems ever known. We pick up the conversation with Lynne Kelly, as she shares some of the incredible stories of how schools and universities have been embedding her work (think law and medicine degrees with students memorising 88 constellations!). Then she runs us through how it works, how this has transformed her understanding of Indigenous cultures and Country, and how this is just scratching the surface of Songlines, and what it could mean for all of us right now.
In the back half of this excerpt, we pick up with Margo Neale sharing some of the transformative decade-long journey bringing the Songlines exhibition to life. We go on to talk about some of the nature of Songlines, where everything has a place, and why the elders are trying to help all people feel they are part of this story. As Margo puts it, no one can live anywhere if you only know your stories of the last 250 years.
You can hear the rest of our conversations in the main episodes, ‘Songlines: Combining the most powerful knowledge systems ever known’ – Part 1: https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/092-songlines-lynne-kelly and Part 2: wherever you get your podcasts (you’ll see some great photos on the website too).
Title slide pic: cover of the pictorial companion to the exhibition, by Margo Neale.
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is a special extra to episode 93 with Margo Neale, co-curator of the extraordinary exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, and co-author of the best-selling book Songlines: The power and the promise. Margo and I decided to keep rolling with our conversation at some length. It’s profound and wonderful stuff, so I wanted to share it all with you. We start here with the transformative effect the exhibition has had on her. And how it has affected the communities who led it. We go on to chat about how Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Songlines embrace technology – but don’t lose themselves in it! The tech is harnessed to rehumanise, not dehumanise. And this kicks off a whole other conversation about Songlines - involving some incredible stories of wayfinding, Tyson Yunkaporta’s railing against the myth of primitivity, and Margo’s dancing troupe of the 60s.
You can hear the main episode, ‘Songlines: Combining the most powerful knowledge systems ever known, Part 2’, wherever you get your podcasts.
Title slide pic: Artwork from the post by Margo, featuring some great photos, on how the communities were central to the success of Songlines - https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/blog/community-central-to-songlines-success
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast, by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Like our previous guest, Lynne Kelly, in part 1 of this series on Songlines, Margo Neale is a pioneer. Margo is of Aboriginal and Irish descent, from the Kulin nation with Gumbayngirr clan connections. And she’s the lead curator of the extraordinary exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, that has made such an incredible mark on Australia, and is about start its high-profile world tour. At the same time, the First Knowledges book series Margo is bringing together has started with an instant best-seller - Songlines: The Power and the Promise, which Margo co-wrote with Lynne.
The second book in the series, on design, is out now, and the following one (by Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe) steps straight into the thick of what’s become known in Australia as ‘The Dark Emu debate’ (triggered by Pascoe’s book). That’s the pointy end of our reckoning with our still largely unconscious Western colonial worldview. And it’s doing it in a way that might just help us finally transcend entrenched feuds, and reveal to more of us the enormous benefits on offer in combining our respective knowledge systems - the most powerful knowledge systems ever known.
This is the nub of Margo and Lynne’s pioneering work. There’s something missing in our reconciliation processes, they say, and by extension with our understanding of how to be fully human in the world, intrinsic to regenerating country as the source of all life.
Margo Neale is Head of the National Museum of Australia’s Indigenous Knowledges Curatorial Centre. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Australian National University’s Centre for Indigenous History. In addition to former fame as a touring go-go dancer!
This conversation was recorded online at Kimberley Cottages and its Windjana Wellness centre, run by local permaculture legend Wendy Albert, on 23 August 2021, with Margo speaking from her home away from home near Braidwood in New South Wales.
Please do jump on board as a podcast patron, become part of a wonderful community of supportive listeners, and help keep this podcast going! - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Title slide image: Margo Neale (sourced from The Canberra Times, by Elesa Kurtz) - https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6052292/national-museum-of-australia-sparks-debate-on-british-museums-collection-of-aboriginal-artefacts/
You'll find some other photos on the episode web page.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Closing tune by Jeremiah Johnson
Get more: Tune into the Extra to this episode, with Margo Neale, wherever you get your podcasts.
And to part 1 of this series on Songlines, with Lynne Kelly - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/092-songlines-lynne-kelly On Margo Neale - https://www.moriartyfoundation.org.au/people/prof-margo-neale/
Margo has curated several major pioneering exhibitions including the multi-award winning Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters - https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/songlines
Songlines (pictorial companion book to the exhibition), by Margo Neale - https://www.qbd.com.au/songlines/margo-neale/9781921953293/
Post by Margo with some great photos on how the communities were central to the success of Songlines - https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/blog/community-central-to-songlines-success
Margo is editing The First Knowledges book series and co-authored Songlines: The Power and Promise with Lynne Kelly - https://shop.nma.gov.au/products/songlines-the-power-and-promise
The rest of the First Knowledges series of books, kick-started by Songlines - https://thamesandhudson.com.au/the-first-knowledges-series/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Lynne Kelly is now often referred to as The Memory Whisperer. Amidst great personal trial and self-doubt, she stumbled on a series of insights that are revolutionising Western understandings of ancient knowledge systems. And with the likewise brilliant Indigenous woman Professor Margo Neale, they are showing how the combination of Western knowledge systems with reinvigorated ancient ones, is where the deep promise lies for enabling the regeneration of life on this planet.
Late Night Live is one of Australia’s longest running radio programs on the ABC. It’s hosted by an Australian legend across media, film, the arts, and now even regenerative agriculture, with his wife Patrice Newell. His name is Phil Adams. And late last year, I was gripped by an interview he conducted with Lynne and Margo on release of their book, Songlines: The Power and The Promise. That in turn, stemmed from the Indigenous-led exhibition taking the country, and soon the world, by storm – Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters.
Phil said of that exhibition that he’s never seen anything of comparable quality anywhere on earth. Margo Neale was the lead curator of that exhibition, alongside the Indigenous communities involved. It was this chat with Phil Adams that also alerted me to the exhibition opening in Perth soon after. We managed to get along just before heading north, and have joined Phil’s chorus. I’ve since read the book by Margo and Lynne, and been blown away.
Phil wished they’d allocated an hour to this on his program. Well, let’s enact that wish here. And then some. We’ll speak with Margo in part 2 of this Songlines series. Today, we feature my conversation with Lynne, on how her transformed life is now helping bridge non-Indigenous understanding of the most powerful knowledge system ever known. And how her personal practice of it has transformed her life – from becoming a national memory championship title holder, to learning languages at will, well into her 60s. And that’s just scratching the surface of Songlines, and what it could mean for all of us right now.
This conversation was recorded online (from inside the store room of the Exmouth Yacht Club – thanks Cathy & Denise!) on 8 July 2021, with Lynne speaking from her home in Castlemaine, Victoria.
Please do jump on board as a patron of the podcast, via the new Patreon page, become part of a wonderful community of supportive listeners, and help keep this podcast going!
Title slide image: Lynne Kelly (supplied).
See the website for a few photos related to this conversation.
Music: Closing tune by Jeremiah Johnson. Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: Lynne Kelly, her books, blog, photos and more - https://www.lynnekelly.com.au/
The book, Songlines: The Power and the Promise - https://shop.nma.gov.au/products/songlines-the-power-and-promise
The exhibition, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters - https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/songlines
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron or donor to the podcast by heading to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
The Patreon page for The RegenNarration is now live! And from here, the podcast goes weekly, with some brewing plans that I hope you’ll support me in. It’s actually been a pretty long and deeply felt process to get to this point. So I wanted to share some of that journey with you here – some of why I’m doing this, where it’s come from, and what’s coming on next. So we interrupt your normal broadcast, with a personal message on that – some of the story behind the stories.
For those who just want to cut to the chase and become one of the first patrons to The RegenNarration, you’ll find the link in the show notes.
As I mentioned last week, since starting this podcast four years ago, listenership has doubled and even tripled year on year. There are now thousands of listeners to each episode. Plus those on a couple of radio stations picking up the podcast. And with that has come the wonderful support of 20 donors – 10 of whom have committed to treasured monthly support, and a few to extremely generous gifts. Thanks to you, this podcast has been able to make it this far, and you’ve shown me that a listener-supported model for this podcast is possible!
With much gratitude to those listeners who’ve been gently at me to do this, the Patreon page for The RegenNarration offers another way you can support the podcast. And a way, it seems, that many people enjoy supporting podcasts. I hope you’ll find it that way here too. My hope is that the Patreon page will offer a way for a broader base of listeners to support the podcast, at whatever level you can, to sure up its viability, and enable it to keep going.
As for going weekly with the podcast, there are just so many terrific stories I feel like we could do with hearing more of right now. I’ve also been feeling increasingly that we still need to sway the balance out there - more in favour of the ‘news’ we really need, rather than the news we still tend to get.
If that sounds like something worth backing in, please do jump on board as a patron, become part of a wonderful community of supportive listeners, and help keep this podcast going!
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Get more: Thanks very much to the generous supporters of the podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by becoming a patron of the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration
Or if you’d prefer to support the podcast by donating, either via Paypal or direct transfer, head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
This is an excerpt from episode 90 featuring the Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam, Marieke van Doorninck, on how they are working to become the world’s first ‘doughnut economy’. We pick up our conversation with 20 minutes or so to go, starting with how people are engaging with the City’s doughnut economy strategy. We go on to talk about a few ways the work is being done – what are the projects and initiatives under way, or being talked about? Marieke brings depth to the notion of a circular economy – beyond just the technical changes – and talks of some of the system changes we need, and how we might achieve them. And as even the Biden administration looks into Doughnut Economics, how can we ensure it maintains its integrity and doesn’t become greenwashing?
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Becoming the World’s First Doughnut Economy, with Amsterdam Deputy Mayor Marieke van Doorninck’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/090-becoming-the-worlds-first-doughnut-economy
Title slide pic: from the cover picture of City of Amsterdam documentation on their engaging with Doughnut Economics (supplied).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Marieke van Doorninck is the Deputy Mayor of the City of Amsterdam, the first city to formally adopt Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics as their compass for human progress. Way back at the beginning of this podcast, Kate Raworth talked with me about her best-selling book Doughnut Economics, proposing an economic model fit for the 21st century - one that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. She calls the doughnut a playfully serious approach to framing that challenge, acting as a compass for human progress this century. And it has inspired the imagination of people everywhere.
Pope Francis calls Doughnut Economics “our species’ compass for the journey” to a sustainable future. A chapter of David Attenborough’s latest book is dedicated to it. And certainly, Kate Raworth’s episodes have been among this podcast’s most listened to. Due to the overwhelming response to her book, she’s created the DEAL (the Doughnut Economics Action Lab). It helps cities, communities, states, provinces, countries and institutions everywhere adopt Doughnut Economics as a reality, scaled and tailored to their circumstances. In the wake of COVID-19, Amsterdam was the first city to formally adopt the Doughnut last year.
In many ways, that seems fitting too. A Time Magazine article earlier this year started with this: ‘In 1602, in a house on a narrow alley, a merchant began selling shares in the nascent Dutch East India Company. In doing so, he paved the way for the creation of the first stock exchange—and the capitalist global economy that has transformed life on earth.” It then quoted a 30 year old woman coordinating the community movement called the Amsterdam Doughnut Coalition: “Now I think we’re one of the first cities in a while to start questioning this system. Is it actually making us healthy and happy? What do we want? Is it really just economic growth?”’
This is a whole city deciding to do something different. And a government responding.
This conversation was recorded online on Thursday 19 July 2021, with Marieke speaking from her office in the Netherlands.
And I've led into it with a special message of thanks for all your support so far, and a heads up for a couple of new developments with the podcast coming soon.
Title slide image: Marieke van Doorninck (supplied).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae
Get more: Marieke van Doorninck - https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/governance/mayor-alderpersons/marieke-van-doorninc/
The City of Amsterdam’s ‘doughnut economy’ - https://www.amsterdam.nl/en/news/brand-new-economy/
Doughnut Economics Action Lab - https://doughnuteconomics.org/
The article I wrote for The Conversation on all this, just before starting the podcast, that went viral and to my delight attracted the interest of mainstream media from the ABC to Sydney talkback - https://theconversation.com/enoughs-enough-buying-more-stuff-isnt-always-the-answer-to-happiness-70703
My conversation with Kate Raworth back at the start of the podcast - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/003-doughnut-economics
Kate’s keynote from Australia’s 2nd New Economy Network national conference, that featured at the top of this episode - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/046-celebrating-doughnut-day
Robert Kennedy’s 1968 speech excerpt sourced from - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FAmr1la6w0
The Innovating Classrooms podcast - https://innovatingclassrooms.org/about/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episodes 88 and 89, parts 1 and 2 of A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence. It features around 15 minutes of each episode, patched together with Rob’s closing lines from the Extra to episode 88. So first up, you’ll hear Rob Pekin and Gaala Watson from the legendary social enterprise Food Connect. We chat about how Gaala and Rob came together here, and the connection between social enterprise and Aboriginal systems of governance. Then we go on to explore how their early experiments with a ‘custodial enterprise’ model are reaping big rewards – from a change to their leasing model, to this brilliant milling and baking initiative.
In the back half of this excerpt, you’ll hear Ian Congdon and Courtney Young, the young farmers pivotal to this changing of the face of farming, and the food and economic systems generally. We talk of their vision, and their experiences of the growing demand for what they’re up to. We chat about their doubts, how incredibly this story has come together, and their reflections on where to take it from here.
You can hear the rest of our conversations in the main episodes, ‘A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence’ – Part 1: https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/088-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part1 and Part 2: https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/089-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part2 (you'll see some great photos here too).
Title slide pic: hand chiselling the new locally made mill (supplied).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Welcome to Part 2 of A Native Grains & Native Mills Resurgence, featuring the young farmers changing the face of farming in Australia. Ian Congdon, Courtney Young and family are farmers, mill makers, artists and business people, and they’re exploring how all this connects with culture, creativity, and the regeneration of country and community. If you haven’t yet listened to last week’s episode with Gaala Watson and Rob Pekin from Food Connect, the trailblazing social enterprise and legendary community food hub in Brisbane, no fear. You can listen in reverse order, as it were. So given you’re here, stick around for this incredible story.
It's a serendipitous chain of events deep and wide across Country, that includes connections with elders, native grains off Bruce Pascoe’s farm, this podcast, and this young farming couple who wondered if they could build the first Australian mill in who knows how long, and how that might help leverage the sorts of systemic changes so many of us would like to see.
Join Courtney, Ian and I, on what happened to be settlement day for their own farm, and would you believe, the day they finished their first mill!
Title slide image: Ian, Courtney and family (supplied). You can see some other terrific photos on the episode webpage.
This episode was recorded on Monday 28 June 2021.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae
Get more: Woodstock Flour - https://www.woodstockflour.com.au/
Courtney’s website - https://www.courtneyyoung.com.au/about
And to listen to Part 1 of this series, A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence, featuring Gaala Watson and Rob Pekin from Food Connect – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/088-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part1
You can hear my conversation with Tyson Yunkaporta, that Courtney refers to, on episode 70 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/070-sand-talk
And as it happens, that one was just after my conversation with MarkTaylor from Miller and Baker - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/069-communities-were-built-around-this
And hats off to Andrew Heyn from New American Stonemills and Don Hearn from the Noteworthy charity, the organiser of the Angie McMahon gig at Little Pork Deli, Barham.
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is a special extra to episode 88 with Robert Pekin, founder of the award-winning social enterprise Food Connect. It features 10 minutes where Rob and I continued on briefly after Gaala left. Well worth the listen to some profound reflections on Rob’s part.
You can hear the main episode, ‘A Native Grains & Native Mills Resurgence, Part 1: Gaala Watson and Rob Pekin on custodial enterprise’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/088-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part1
Title slide pic: Robert Pekin (supplied).
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
You might remember Robert Pekin (with his partner Emma-Kate Rose) from episode 28. Rob’s the founder of Food Connect, the trailblazing social enterprise and legendary community food hub in Brisbane. Since then, plenty has happened at Food Connect. The $2m equity crowd-fund – an Australian first - was successful. And Gaala Watson, a Kungalu and Birri-Gubba Woman born and raised in Brisbane, came on board as Chair of the Food Connect Foundation. That convergence of people, skills and cultures is bringing about a revolutionary addition to their set up, thanks to a serendipitous chain of events deep and wide across Country. That included connections with local elders, the native grains off Bruce Pascoe’s farm, a young farming couple in NSW who wondered if they could build the first Australian mill in who knows how long, and this podcast.
Back in episode 28, Rob and Emma-Kate talked about being a ‘systems enterprise’ more than a social enterprise – aiming to change the inter-related food, farming and economic systems, along with the cultural stories underpinning how we organise those systems. Now Food Connect is starting to flip capital from an ownership to a custodial model. This lands squarely in Gaala’s wheelhouse – where social enterprise aligns with Aboriginal systems of governance. And where this particular enterprise aligns with an enduring vision stemming from her father.
Title slide image: Gaala Watson (off the Food Connect Foundation website) (Rob Pekin is the title slide image in the Extra to this episode).
This episode was recorded on Friday 25 June 2021.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: Tune into the 10 minute Extra to this episode, where Rob and I continue on a little after Gaala left.
Food Connect Foundation - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/
Food Connect enterprise - https://foodconnect.com.au/
Bio’s of Gaala and Rob (and Emma-Kate) - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/board/
Woodstock Flour on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/woodstockflour/
Hear Rob and partner Emma-Kate together on episode 28 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/028-transforming-food-finance-society
And my conversation with Mark Taylor at Miller and Baker on episode 69 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/069-communities-were-built-around-this
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 87 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with the CEO of Commonland, Willem Ferwerda. We pick up our conversation with a question I’ve been looking forward to delving into with Willem for a while – how do we create a regenerative economy that fosters healing of country and restoration of landscapes by its very nature, in the face of cultures and systems going the other way (think shareholder value, GDP as a measure of progress and investment expectations)?
We go on to talk about Willem’s “big dream” and how it’s taking another significant step as part of the recently launched UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. And we close by coming full circle to the words of Oral McGuire: “Biodiversity is the manifestation of spirit” (along with the challenge he lays down) - with some stirring words from Willem himself, alongside his choice of music.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘COVID & the Wolf: Willem Ferverda on making landscape restoration & Spirit the heart of economy’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/087-covid-and-the-wolf
Title slide pic: Willem Ferwerda, all grown up (supplied).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Willem Ferwerda has an extraordinary background as an ecologist and international policy leader. But a little over a decade ago, after backing over 1,000 conservation projects, he decided to face down the fact that they weren’t making a dent in our slide into mass extinction and ecosystem collapse. He turned towards business and economics, and has since dedicated himself to building practical bridges between ecology and economy. Since founding Commonland in 2013, his team has been applying its holistic ‘4 Returns’ framework to restoring landscapes at scale globally, across a range of ecosystems, and with brilliant success (including in my home state of Western Australia). Yet, the overall picture continues to worsen. So with 8 years of learning in hand, they’re gearing up a notch, and inviting us to join them, as a key element of the newly launched UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Willem and I first met on Ballardong country in the wheatbelt of Western Australia, at Oral McGuire’s place. It was a special few days spent with the Indigenous-led WA collaboration they’ve engaged with, that has been pivotal to Commonland’s evolution in recent years. We had a couple of open, warm and penetrating conversations about the state of things, and our respective observations about what is possible together. Willem says he’s been watching ideas and talk of natural solutions move from marginal to mainstream over 30 years - that a transformation is afoot - across business, finance and economics, and above all in people’s search for meaning, purpose and spirit.
This conversation was recorded online on Tuesday 29 June 2021, with Willem speaking from home in the Netherlands.
Title slide image: Willem Ferwerda in the Costa Rican forest in 1992 (supplied).
You can see more photos from Willem on the episode web page.
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: Commonland - https://www.commonland.com/
Willem’s personal post that prompted this conversation, on our path towards restoring landscapes and a regenerative economy - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/covid-wolf-willem-ferwerda/
The footage of the wolves returning to the Netherlands, featured in the post above - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMIzpnK_aNc
The Commonland 4 Returns Framework report launched with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration last month - https://clicktime.symantec.com/35ZQWMDWqzsXWU8PsFLabKx6H2?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commonland.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F06%2F4-Returns-for-Landscape-Restoration-June-2021-UN-Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration.pdf
The launch event in full, featuring Oral McGuire with the closing words, and a series of short clips of landscape restoration from around the world: ‘A common language to accelerate landscape restoration’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgDp4SIkPbw
Willem’s personal video explanation of the 4 Returns Framework for that event - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huFDUT12jqM
4returns.earth, the 4 Returns online community platform - www.4Returns.Earth
UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration - https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/
Willem also recommended the new film Breaking Boundaries, featuring David Attenborough and Johan Rockstrom. Here’s the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb6wQtNjblk
Green Gold, a documentary by John D Liu on the extraordinary story of the Loess Plateau in China - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBLZmwlPa8A
Here’s the 5 minute teaser, also featuring Willem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rpe8RbO-q4
And Aluna, a movie on indigenous wisdom from the Kogi Indians in Colombia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftFbCwJfs1I
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 86 featuring the full gripping 13 minutes of Fate, a track from the new release album by Stephen Jenkinson and key collaborator Gregory Hoskins (with band). We pick up our conversation with 15 minutes or so to go, leading in to that piece of music. We talk Fate, our primordial starting point vs a nostalgia for secretly remaining in charge, and drinking daily from eye sockets.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘A Generation’s Worth: Climate strikes, making music & what now?’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/086-a-generations-worth
Title slide pic: The cover image for Fate, with Gregory Hoskins and Stephen Jenkinson (supplied).
Music: Fate, by Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins (with band).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Some of you might remember that Stephen Jenkinson was my first guest when this podcast changed name to The RegenNarration, back in episode 35. For those who are newer to the podcast, Stephen’s a special presence in the world – a wonderful lyricist and story teller, teacher and ceremonialist, author and farmer. Our last conversation delved into his new book at the time, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble, in which the case is made that we must birth a new generation of elders, one poised and willing to be true stewards of the planet and its species. That episode culminated in some of his gripping music and spoken word. Today we talk more about that art form, for last year he and key collaborator Gregory Hoskins released a studio and accompanying live album – called Rough Gods and Dark Roads, respectively. They were to be toured globally. But we all know what happened then.
I’ve had guests and listeners alike speak to me of their respect for Stephen, since he was first on the podcast. So when Stephen’s wife Nathalie reached out to update me on the new releases, I was keen to speak with him again. We dwell deeply in the new music this time, and particularly on one track – called Fate - that’s acutely relevant in the wake of the latest global student climate strike last month. It’s featured in its full 13 minutes at the end of this episode.
More on Stephen: Stephen is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. Most recently, a four-part livestream speaking series, A Generation’s Worth, was presented in Winter 2020. A book of the same name, emerging from that series, is due out soon.
Title slide image: Stephen Jenkinson (supplied). See the episode web page for more photos - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/086-a-generations-worth
This episode was recorded on Tuesday 24 May 2021 (Australian time), a few days after the most recent global student climate strike.
Music: Fate, by Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins (with band), a 13 minute track featured in full at the end of this episode.
Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: You can find more from Stephen at his Orphan Wisdom website, the home of his writing and teaching work. It’s described there as ‘a redemptive project that comes from where we come from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time we won’t see’ - https://orphanwisdom.com
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 85 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with Cathy McGowan. We pick things up with the passage that became the opener in the main episode. It heralds a powerful sequence from Cathy, and an insight into what’s bubbling up around the country in the lead up to the next federal election. We then go into how things worked for her, and other increasingly successful independents, on the ground – the practical realities, the value set, and the networks of support that make it all possible. We draw to a close with more of the vision, strategy and supportive infrastructure being developed, to get more community-minded independents elected. Oh, and an express request from Cathy to share this podcast.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Politics That Works: A proven way becoming a powerful movement’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/085-politics-that-works
Title slide pic: The cover to Cathy’s book.
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howel and Sunwrae.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Cathy McGowan was the first female independent MP to sit on the Australian parliamentary cross bench. She was elected in 2013 to the federal seat of Indi, which had been an entrenched conservative party seat for 74 years. At the following election, in 2016, she increased her majority, despite the Liberal/National Party coalition going hard to reclaim it. When Cathy bowed out of parliament ahead of the 2019 election, Indi again made Australian political history with the election of Dr Helen Haines as its second successive independent woman MP. And it’s all been achieved on the back of a still growing community movement, now far from limited to Indi.
This is one of the greatest political stories going in Australia, and arguably the world. It’s a story about how community-minded people are getting elected, getting represented, and getting the outcomes that representation can and should get. In that sense, it’s also a story about how politics in this country – and arguably further afield – can be transformed for the better. Cathy has a vision that in 10 years this transformation could realistically be achieved, starting with the next federal election.
Cathy is now helping to leverage this capacity right across the country. She wrote a book last year, and the enormous reaction to it prompted the first National Convention of Community-Minded Independents earlier this year. Organisers were blown away when 300 people from more than half of Australia’s federal electorates turned up. So with no shortage of people up for this, and more supportive infrastructure developing, a proven way is becoming a powerful movement - with genuine representation, responses to climate and biodiversity challenges, wellbeing economics, reconciliation and regenerative practices on the cards.
“It is past the time of sitting back, hoping that others will do something. It is time to turn up, speak up and step up. The outcomes are worth it. The nation needs it.” – Cathy McGowan.
More on Cathy: Cathy got the Australian Bureau of Statistics to count women’s unpaid domestic and farming work in the 1990’s. During her time as a politician Cathy actively worked in Parliament to develop policy around regional development, constitutional change for first nations people and a solution to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. In 2019 she was awarded The Accountability Round Table award for political integrity. She is an Officer in the Order of Australia, a Churchill fellow and lives very happily on her farm in the Indigo Valley in NE Victoria.
This episode was recorded on Thursday 27 May 2021.
Title slide image: Cathy McGowan (from her website, below).
You can see the promotional card from the National Convention that I mentioned in our conversation on the web page for this episode.
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: Cathy McGowan (including how to get hold of her book, and all sorts of other resources) - https://cathymcgowan.com.au/
Getting Elected (resources from the 1st National Convention for Community-Minded Independents) - https://www.communityindependents.com.au/
Women for Election Australia (aiming to equip 2,000 women to stand for public office by 2022) - https://wfea.org.au/
Voices 4 Indi - https://voicesforindi.com/
Independents CAN - https://www.independentscan.com.au/
Cathy’s clarion call leading up to the National Convention - https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/women-step-up-as-communities-vote-independent-20210222-p574kb.html
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 84 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with Dr Anne Poelina. We pick up the conversation with Anne’s powerful articulation of a way to proceed with planning in the Kimberley, on the back of an existing federal government bioregional framework. We go on to talk more about the incredible new film The Serpent’s Tale, leading to Anne’s heart-rending plea for more of us to correspond with the West Australian government by May 31st. She goes on to suggest how. And her story of the blind Aboriginal elder who sang his way to Uluru – 6 times! – offers a touchstone for the profound nature of the Songlines, and of so much what we stand to gain together, by standing together now. A true circular economy, as Mary Graham puts it - in relationship with everything. Anne often talks about ‘waking up the snake’ – the consciousness of the people. We close with me asking her whether she thinks this is happening.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerative Songlines: Film, First Law & the Martuwarra Fitzroy River’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/084-regenerative-songlines
You can see a few terrific photographs on that episode web page too.
Title slide pic: Martuwarra (pic: Mark Jones).
Music: Liyan, by Anne’s son Mark Coles-Smith, composing as Kalaji (joined by the wonderful Ursula Yovich).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
This special episode departs from the usual schedule, as there’s a particularly pressing aspect to this one.
Dr Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous Australian) woman who belongs to the Mardoowarra, the lower Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is also Chair of the esteemed Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council. When Anne and I last spoke for the podcast, in Broome a few years ago, I said this:
“If anywhere epitomizes the critical time we’re in, it’s in the spectacular cultural and natural landscapes of her homeland. Almost incredibly, there are 40,000+ fracking wells slated for this area, along with the damming of the Fitzroy River, and more ‘old-model’ industrial agriculture. Yet the next economy is also in tow here, and this is where Anne is currently focusing her extraordinary breadth of cross-cultural knowledge and experience.”
Three years on and a power of work has been done. This includes the forming of Regenerative Songlines Australia. It’s to launch in NAIDOC Week. And while that ‘old industrial model’ lurks in the Kimberley, a profound new film screened last week called The Serpent’s Tale. It documents the creation of Martuwarra, the National Heritage listed Fitzroy River. And its launch draws attention to an important state government submission process on now, while invoking deeper connection with the River and Country generally.
This episode was recorded on 20 May and released on 24 May 2021, the anniversary of the exploding of the Juukan Gorge last year, which destroyed a 46,000-year heritage site. A reminder that the stakes couldn’t be higher, in terms of staving off disaster, but also ushering in the emerging new story of connection and regeneration.
For those less familiar with Anne, she is also an international award winner, Managing Director of Madjulla Incorporated, a qualified nurse, traditional midwife, has multiple postgraduate degrees, and over 30 years’ experience in Indigenous health, education, language and community development.
Title slide image: Dr Anne Poelina (supplied).
You’ll find a selection of photographs from Anne on the episode web page.
Music: River Feeling, at the start of the episode, and Liyan, at the end, both by Anne’s son Mark Coles-Smith, composing as Kalaji (joined in Liyan by the wonderful Ursula Yovich).
Get more: Dr Anne Poelina - https://www.majala.com.au/anne-poelina
The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council – https://martuwarrafitzroyriver.org/
Trailer for the film, The Serpent’s Tale - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NgiiGEBbtw
Make a submission or write an email or letter by 31 August 2021 (extended soon after the release of this episode) - https://www.likenowhereelse.org.au/water_paper
Regenerative Songlines Australia, to launch in NAIDOC Week - https://www.regenerative-songlines.net.au/
The Council is keen to show the film again in the next month so please subscribe to their email list via the website to be updated - https://martuwarrafitzroyriver.org/newsletter
And to listen to previous episodes with Anne (ep 21), Tyson Yunkaporta (ep 70), the ‘Law of the Land’ panel conversation (ep 71), and Mary Graham’s ‘New Economy’ presentation (ep 26) - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 83 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with award-winning archaeology professor, Peter Veth. We pick it up at the tail end of Peter answering my question about how archaeology has changed to work with First Nations, not on them. We went on to chat about the global ‘blockbuster’ exhibition Songlines, currently touring, and how it’s changing the Australian (and arguably world) psyche. We then delve more into the extraordinary impacts that these emerging ‘finds’ and connections are having on people – both First Nations and the rest of us. And take a final sweeping look across country at the extraordinary living cultural heritage coming to light, and what needs to happen with it in response. We close with Peter’s reflections on the value of a life, in the context of crisis and deep time.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerating in Deep Time: New finds, narratives and future possibilities’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/083-regenerating-in-deep-time
You can see a few terrific early photographs of Peter among some of the First Nations communities we talked about, on the episode web page too.
Title slide pic: The dawn over Cape Range, the day after final production of this episode (pic: Anthony James).
Music: The Great Unwind, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
This is a special extra to episode 83 with award-winning archaeologist, Peter Veth. We delve further here into what Peter believes needs to happen in the crucible of landscapes such as those in north west Australia. We talk about the place of heavy industry, cultural enterprise and interpretation, economies, education and media. With an approach that celebrates the extraordinary deep time value of these co-created landscapes and cultures. Generating a more universal view, as Peter puts it – reflecting how First Nations see things, and how many young people see things now too.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerating in Deep Time’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/083-regenerating-in-deep-time
You can see a few terrific early photographs of Peter among some of the First Nations communities we talked about, on that episode web page too.
Title slide pic: Peter Veth at Cape Range (pic: UWA).
Music: The Great Unwind, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Australia’s history is being significantly rewritten - or perhaps better said, heard. There is growing widespread understanding of the sophistication, presence and wisdom of the First Australians, and not just from the game-changing works of people like Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage. Now that modern Australia is looking in more of the right places, with the right mind, and with the First Australians themselves, our national - and really, human - story, is changing everywhere.
This is a story of successful continuous human migration, cultivation and livelihood, right across Australia, over many a changing climate and shifting sea level. And leading archaeology professor from UWA, Peter Veth, has been working with First Nations for over 40 years to help share this story.
Peter has just started a new dig with First Nations folk here on the North West Cape of Australia, part of the World Heritage Ningaloo Coast. It’s expected to reveal the First Nations presence in this part of the world dates back an extraordinary 60,000 years. And when pieced together with other finds and collaborations happening across Australia and the world, it changes the way we see our country, it’s people, and the human experience generally. And that, in turn, is broadening the menu of present and future possibilities enormously, at a time when this region, its people, and the world as a whole, need it most.
This conversation was recorded on the new moon of 12 May 2021.
Title slide image: Cape Range, on the World Heritage Ningaloo Coast (pic: UWA).
You can see a few terrific early photographs of Peter among some of the First Nations communities we talked about, on the episode web page - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/083-regenerating-in-deep-time
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: Tune into the special extra with Peter, wherever you get your podcasts.
On Peter Veth - https://uwa.edu.au/people/peter.veth
On the new Nyinggulu Archaeology Project, from ABC Pilbara, ‘Ningaloo research to tell 60,000-year-old story as new technology uncovers deeper past’ - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-06/ningaloo-research-will-tell-60-000-year-old-story/100116262
Songlines exhibition - https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/songlines
Songlines book by Margo Neale and Lynne Kelly - https://thamesandhudson.com.au/an-introduction-to-songlines-the-power-and-promise/
On the Resilient Reefs initiative – https://www.resilientreefsningaloo.com (and hear my conversation with Dr Peter Barnes & Joel Johnsson from last year on this - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/065-keeping-coral)
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 82 featuring a grab of about 14 minutes or so from my conversation with Geoff Bastyan. He’s the bloke at the heart of what’s been recognised as the world’s most successful seagrass restoration. And what a story it is. With all the key ingredients. Like being told it couldn’t be done, facing a dire wipe out of the pre-existing seagrass meadows, and intuiting the surprisingly simple method that would turn it all around. And what that means for marine habitat and food, preventing coastal erosion, and for what’s come to called ‘blue carbon’, can’t be overstated.
You can hear the rest of our conversation, waterside in Albany, in the main episode, ‘The World’s Most Successful Seagrass Restoration, with humble pioneer Geoff Bastyan’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/82-geoff-bastyan
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Restoration in progress – a 1997 seagrass restoration trial, four years later in October 2001. Credit: Geoff Bastyan (source: https://phys.org/news/2016-06-year-old-successful-seagrass-world.html)
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
You might remember Keith Bradby from Gondwana Link in episode 79 a few weeks ago. If you haven’t heard it yet, suffice to say here that Gondwana Link has been called “the most exciting thing happening in restoration in Australia, if not the world.” Within its 1,000 kilometre restoration zone lies the Oyster Harbour catchment. And the Harbour that does the catching has drawn renown as the site of the world’s most successful seagrass restoration. With a humble bloke by the name of Geoff Bastyan at the heart of it.
Geoff is regarded as a bit of local legend around Albany, in the south of Western Australia. And a few years ago, he was duly awarded the prestigious Great Southern Development Commission medal.
It was back in the 1970s that Geoff first noticed the local harbours losing their vital seagrass meadows. He self-funded a monitoring effort over the next decade, by which time almost all the seagrass was gone. The harbours were effectively desertifying, largely due to industrial and agricultural run-off. But as older industries closed, and farmers, the local catchment group, and others inland reduced agricultural run-off, Geoff was painstakingly pioneering a way to restore the seagrass - when conventional wisdom suggested it couldn’t be done.
Seagrass benefits the health of marine ecosystems in so many ways, by providing marine habitat and food, preventing coastal erosion by stabilising sediments and protecting shorelines from large swells, and storing nutrients and what’s come to be called ‘blue carbon’. Geoff cites a study here that found the restored seagrass meadows of Oyster Harbour, even after a relatively short time span, store between 30 to 50 times more carbon per hectare than the Amazon rainforest.
This conversation was recorded waterside in Albany, Western Australia, on 5 March 2021.
Title slide image: Geoff Bastyan (source: https://www.greatsouthernlive.com.au/albany-wa-oyster-harbour-catchment-geoff-bastyan-sea-grass-rehabilitation/)
You’ll see a few photos on the episode’s web page too - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/082-geoff-bastyan
Get more: On Geoff Bastyan and the seagrass restoration success - https://www.greatsouthernlive.com.au/albany-wa-oyster-harbour-catchment-geoff-bastyan-sea-grass-rehabilitation/
For my conversation with Professor Gary Kendrick for the Clean State podcast ‘Blue Carbon, Conservation Economies and the Great Seagrass Restoration’ - https://www.cleanstate.org.au/podcast
For my conversation with Keith Bradby, the CEO of Gondwana Link - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/79-gondwana-link
On the Oyster Harbour Catchment Group - https://www.ohcg.org.au/
And if you’re interested in getting involved, in all manner of ways, including funding the next phase of seagrass restoration - https://gondwanalink.org/get-involved/
Gondwana Link’s video channel is also well worth a look, with a series of short videos including on the seagrass restoration at Oyster Harbour - https://vimeo.com/channels/gondwanalink
Go direct to the seagrass restoration video ‘Farming for the Future - Restoring Oyster Harbour Together’ - https://vimeo.com/482458454
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 81 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with writer and Australian National Living Treasure, Tim Winton. We pick up the conversation where I wondered if Tim agreed that the grounds for positive change seemed to be getting more fertile. We go on to explore more of Tim’s personal story, source of meaning, and view on the value of art. Especially in the context of joining efforts to transition away from this ‘peculiar, savage and inhumane form of capitalism’, towards the true bottom line of the soil, air, fresh water and ocean that sustains all.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Leaning Towards the Light: Recovering masculinity, meaning & true power’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/081-leaning-towards-the-light
You’ll find a few photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Exmouth Gulf (pic: Anthony James)
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
I had this conversation with Tim Winton back in 2018, but it’s been front of mind for me again in recent weeks, as we enter a moment of reckoning on gender-related inequality and violence – certainly in a big way in Australia right now, and of course more broadly in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and so many others over a long period of time. It also continues to invoke a kind of personal reckoning. You’ll hear more from me on this at the start of this episode.
To many of you, Tim won’t need an introduction. He is one of the world’s most brilliant, authentic and awarded writers, and is regarded as a National Living Treasure here in Australia. For those less aware of Tim, his brief publisher bio is below.
Tim and I both reveal some pretty raw parts of our journeys here, in recovering a masculinity worth the term. And this framed the back half of our conversation on his ongoing efforts to help protect the World Heritage listed Ningaloo Reef. Particularly, at this time, Exmouth Gulf – in effect, the Reef’s nursery.
This episode comes to you from back on the shores of Exmouth Gulf, which looks doubly magnificent in the wake of the recent successes of the Protect Ningaloo project. But the future of this region, and so many others, is of course still so bound up in our culture of damaged masculinity. Our national parliament is enough to demonstrate that. But of course, it’s not just about parliament, it’s about the systems and stories across the board that have generated, perpetrated and legitimised this for too long.
Back in May 2018, I wondered if Tim agreed that the grounds for positive change seemed to be getting more fertile. And here we are now, with gutsy women taking a stand everywhere, and more gutsy men looking to do what’s right. In this context, at this moment, it feels like the wisdom Tim brings to the table here is worth releasing into the world again.
Tim Winton has published twenty-nine books for adults and children, and his work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Since his first novel, An Open Swimmer, won the Australian Vogel Award in 1981, he has won the Miles Franklin Award four times (for Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music and Breath) and twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize (for The Riders and Dirt Music). He lives in Western Australia.
Title slide image: Tim Winton (source: https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/tim-winton).
You'll see some pics on the episode webpage too - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/081-leaning-towards-the-light
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae
Get more: Books by Tim Winton - https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/tim-winton
The Shepherd’s Hut - https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-shepherds-hut-9780143795490
Breath, Simon Baker's film adaptation of another of Tim's award-winning novels - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/03/exclusive-first-look-at-the-trailer-for-simon-bakers-film-adaptation-of-tim-wintons-breath
The Protect Ningaloo campaign - https://www.protectningaloo.org.au
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 80 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with award-winning filmmaker and photographer, Nicol Ragland. How does Bill Gates’ recent ‘intervention’ in food systems differ from what we really need? And how are some First Nations people saying ‘no thanks’ to that intervention? These questions lead our conversation through Nicol’s work with Regenerate Oklahoma, some of her transformative experiences with Indigenous peoples around the world, and what that might mean for re-conceptualising our relationship with land. She goes on to rib me a little on the topic of trust, reveals how she (almost) stood in the recent federal election, and all this culminates with an awesome exchange on the wisdom of elders.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerative Media: What if it’s not about solving but maintaining a connection?’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/080-regenerative-media
You’ll find a selection of Nicol’s spectacular photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: B&W shot of the Hadza (pic: Nicol Ragland).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
This is a special extra to episode 80 with award-winning filmmaker, Nicol Ragland. We hear more of Nicol’s personal journey from childhood and artist, through to formative experiences with Indigenous cultures around the world. We explore this in parallel to the growing movement in solutions journalism and regenerative media, and where it all could take us. Particularly if married with the sort of education model she’s witnessed right here in Australia, with Terry McCosker and his team at RCS.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerative Media: What if it’s not about solving but maintaining a connection?’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/080-regenerative-media
You’ll find a selection of Nicol’s spectacular photos on that web page too.
And if you want to hear the episode with Terry McCosker, you can find it at https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/067-behind-the-greatest-regenerative-agriculture-movement-in-australia
Title slide pic: In Australia with RCS Australia (pic: Nicol Ragland).
Music: The Great Unwind, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Nicol Ragland is an award-winning film maker and photographer from the US. I first came across Nicol when she directed the spectacular short film, Farmer’s Footprint, featuring Dr Zach Bush and a group of regenerative farmers including Gabe Brown. It echoed so many of the stories you hear on this podcast, and elsewhere, of both the litany of issues in the wake of ‘big agriculture’ and its related systems, and the often-surprising pace of recovery among those communities able to step out from under that boot heel.
Nicol might be thought of as part of a growing movement of solutions journalism or regenerative media. But she still thinks too few producers understand the influence of propaganda and well financed algorithms. And what we can do about it.
Nicol was born and raised in Oklahoma and Colorado, but couldn’t wait to get out of there. After eighteen years in Los Angeles, though, she recently circled back to her “red dirt roots”. She wrote a blog about why, talking of the power of reconnection with country, health and communities. And she lamented that so much of our deepening political divides are between rural and urban folk, concluding with the question: “What if it’s not about solving but about maintaining a connection?”
This conversation was recorded on the morning of 16 March 2021 (Australian time).
Title slide image: Nicol and companion (supplied).
You’ll find a selection of Nicol’s spectacular photos on the episode web page too - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/080-regenerative-media
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae
Get more: Tune into the special extra with Nicol, coming soon.
Nicol’s website - https://www.nicolragland.com/
Farmer’s Footprint - https://farmersfootprint.us/
The Farmer’s Footprint short film (20 minutes) - https://farmersfootprint.us/watch/
Regenerate Oklahoma - https://www.regenerateoklahoma.us/
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 79 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of a special conversation with Keith Bradby, CEO of Gondwana Link. We explore the machinations of change, from intuition and leaps of faith, through to connecting all kinds of people and places, across all kinds of political and cultural divides. We then delve into what this means for the economics and politics of change, including how to keep carbon in context. And we close with how to keep ourselves from being distracted by the causes of our problems, to focus more on what matters most.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Gondwana Link: The most exciting restoration at scale in Australia, with Keith Bradby’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/79-gondwana-link You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too. Title slide pic: Keith Bradby (Ami Vitale). Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going. Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Gondwana Link has been called “the most exciting thing that is happening in restoration in Australia, if not the world.” It’s a one thousand kilometre stretch of country extending right across the south of Western Australia. This globally recognised biodiversity hotspot had been little understood, and devastatingly cleared. But not all of it. And Gondwana Link is restoring and re-connecting these land and seascapes, their communities, and their cultures. Hundreds of people, dozens of groups, private and public landholders, investors and more.
One of the outstanding successes has been the First Nations-led restoration of Nowanup – and all on the back of a handshake. That seems like the big story here – the trust and re-connection, that bears the fruit of restoration. And you’ll find Keith Bradby right in the thick of it.
Keith has been at the heart of Gondwana Link since it began nearly twenty years ago – and really, long before that. He’s the CEO of the organisation, has worked in business and as senior staff to cabinet ministers across the political spectrum, and exudes a love of connecting people and places. A walking ecology. Well, we all are really, but Keith sets a standard.
His pivotal achievements read as long as your leg, playing key roles in developing the WA Landcare Network (he’s currently Chair), halting widespread clearing, and recrafting regional economies - both in Australia and now around the world.
Among his many accolades, Keith’s been awarded the Great Southern Development Commission’s Medal of Excellence in Natural Resource Management in 2005, and an Order of Australia Medal in 2015.
This conversation was recorded at one of the magnificent restoration sites at Twin Creeks, on 4 March 2021.
Title slide image: Keith Bradby (pic supplied)
You'll find a series of other photos on the episode web page too, including a particularly uncanny one - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/79-gondwana-link
Note: the quote at the top of this episode description was from Professor Richard Hobbs – an internationally recognised ecologist.
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae
Get more: On Keith Bradby - https://landcaresa.asn.au/keith-bradby-oam/
Gondwana Link - https://gondwanalink.org/
And if you’re interested in getting involved, in all manner of ways - https://gondwanalink.org/get-involved/
Gondwana Link’s video channel is well worth a look, with a series of short videos - https://vimeo.com/channels/gondwanalink
A short video profile on Gondwana Link featuring Keith, at the Twin Creeks site, produced by Luke Sweet for Clean State WA - https://vimeo.com/440242814
This short animation, with 2 million views and counting, is one of Keith’s favourite outlines of some of the dynamics at play: ‘Why Poor Places are More Diverse’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWVATekt4ZA
Keith also co-wrote and narrated the award-winning documentary ‘A Million Acres a Year’, which told the story of the change from large scale clearing to the beginnings of large scale restoration in Western Australia - https://slwa.kanopy.com/video/million-acres-year
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an excerpt from episode 78 featuring the last 25 minutes of my conversation with leading holistic farmers, Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus. We explore what it takes to regenerate country, community and custodianship. And to kick that off, I raise a section of the recent popular TV series here in Australia, Fight for Planet A, that had me squirming in my seat. We then delve into some fascinating work around the health of ancient cultures relative to our modern ‘lifestyle’ afflictions, and how we might harness the ‘best of both worlds’. We close with Jeff’s run for parliament and an invitation to join Jeff and Michelle on their custodial journey.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Growing Food & Farmers – for 500 Years!’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/078-growing-food-and-farmers-for-500-years
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: regenerated pasture at Southampton (Justin Wolfgang).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Marking Jeff's run for Parliament at the West Australian state election today, this is a special extra to episode 78 with Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus. It’s a stretch of eight minutes or so that starts with Jeff describing the extraordinary and instructive experience of the day Southampton burned. And it closes with a collective reflection on notions of responsibility, stewardship and the long game.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Growing Food & Farmers – for 500 Years!’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/078-growing-food-and-farmers-for-500-years
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: The burned out shell of the historic Southampton Homestead (pic: Anthony James).
Music: The Great Unwind, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus are bringing chicken farming back to earth, and playing a part in rebirthing opportunities for communities and regions everywhere. They’ll say they’re doing nothing particularly new, but they’re finding a way to regenerate country, community and economy in an unprecedented context of crises. For them, most recently, an horrific bushfire devastated their historic Southampton Homestead and Farm.
We explore their soulful and award-winning journey of recovery, as they form part of a leading trend in farming – tending healthy people, animals and country, while reclaiming the terms of trade. That means taking back responsibility for the growing, processing and value-adding of all the food on the farm, and bringing it directly to the community.
Now Jeff is standing for parliament at this month’s state election and, much like the Haggerty’s in episode 68, they’re inviting the return of farmers and others back on country, to scale the regeneration together, rather than as individual empires. They’re “growing food and farmers”, reclaiming the story of people and nature from Hobbesian nightmares, and restoring custodianship on country as our way out - creating the new system, as a means of emerging from the old.
This conversation was recorded on location at Southampton Homestead and Farm on 3 December 2020.
Cover photo: Jeff on the farm (pic: Anthony James). You'll see more photos on our website (click on the links below).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more: Tune into the special extra with Jeff and Michelle, coming soon.
Southampton Homestead website - https://southamptonhomestead.com/
Jeff’s run for Parliament at the WA state election on 13 March 2021 - https://greens.org.au/wa/person/jeff-pow
2015 short film by Regrarians with Jeff and Michelle, ‘After the Fire’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyz1eqNQB3A
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
This is an extract from episode 77 featuring the last 15 minutes or so of my conversation with the award-winning director of ‘That Sugar Film’ and ‘2040’, Damon Gameau. We pick up on what Damon says has been the most rewarding, promising and important part of his work with both films – working with kids and teachers in education. One million young people have engaged with the 2040 film and initiatives alone. And its upcoming US TV release is still to come.
We go on to talk about a number of other stories that are changing the story this year, our experience of an extraordinary generation of elders, and a reflection on what might just be needed most right now.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘2021: Approaching regenerative tipping points’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/077-2021
Title slide pic: Damon Gameau in conscious company (supplied).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Welcome to a new year of The RegenNarration. And what a year it’s shaping up to be. But before we get into that, I wanted to take a brief moment here to admit to feeling a little flat. And by extension, to explain the delayed start to the podcast this year. Some sad and in some ways seismic changes have consumed me in recent times. And really, these changes relate to everything this podcast is about. So this episode starts on that note, before leading in to a conversation spanning a spectrum of spectacular efforts to regenerate the systems and stories we live by.
Kind enough to join me in this sweeping primer for the year is friend, supporter of the podcast, and masterfully accomplished director of That Sugar Film and 2040, Damon Gameau. We talk about some of what’s on, what’s coming on, and how we’re seeing the growing momentum towards regenerative tipping points.
Dedicated to Dad.
Title slide pic: Damon Gameau (supplied).
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more: The 2040 website - https://whatsyour2040.com/
And you can find more of Damon and Anthony in conversation for episodes 30 (just prior to 2040 being released) and 38 (at the Perth premiere of the film) – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes
Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
We’re signing off for the year with our annual episode of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2020. If you’ve been listening throughout this unique and likely transformative year, enjoy the revisit. And for those newer to the podcast, here’s a snapshot of how the year played out on The RegenNarration.
You’ll see the track list for the 2020 Soundtrack below. Have a wonderful festive season and we look forward to joining you again for a regenerative new year.
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Welcome to 2020 (from ep. 53), to music by Jeremiah Johnson
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Dr Sheila Nguyen (from ep. 54), Mike Salvaris (from ep. 55), and Jo Chandler (from ep. 56), all to The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
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An intro from home as COVID-19 lockdown begins, and Alanna Shaikh (from ep. 57)
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Eugenie Stockmann (from ep. 58), from a live panel event at the Uni of Notre Dame in Fremantle
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Dr Eduard Muller (from ep. 59), Matthew Evans (from ep. 60), Hunter Lovins (from ep. 61), Zach Bush MD (from ep. 62), Kirsten Larsen (from ep. 63), Tony Rinaudo (from ep. 64), all to music by Jeremiah Johnson
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Joel Johnsson and Dr Peter Barnes (from ep. 65), to On the Punt by Adam Gibson and the Aerial Maps
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David Pollock (from ep. 66), to the sounds of Wooleen Station
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Dr Terry McCosker (from ep. 67) and Dianne Haggerty (from ep. 68), to music by Jeremiah Johnson
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Mark Taylor (from ep. 69), to the sounds of the mill
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Tyson Yunkaporta (from ep. 70) and Dr Charles Massy (from the extract to ep. 32, accompanying the Australian Story TV program on Charles), to Stones and Bones by Owls of the Swamp
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Dr Kate Auty and Dr Alessandro Pellizon (from ep. 71), Nicole Masters (from ep. 72), Amy Steel and Lily Brazel (from ep. 73), and Rosanne Scott (from ep. 74), all to Faraway Castle by Rae Howell and Sunwrae
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Allan Savory (from ep. 75), to Scotland the Brave by Eric M Armour - freemusicarchive.org/music/AS220/AS…land_the_Brave - Sourced from the Free Music Archive under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License - creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Title pic: Rainbow over the regenerating landscapes of the Haggerty’s (episode 68).
With thanks to all of the brilliant musicians who generously granted permission for their music to appear here.
Get more: To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to our website https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. If you too value the podcast, please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support
Thanks for listening, have a wonderful festive season and see you again in 2021!
This is an extract from episode 75 featuring the last half an hour of my conversation with regenerative agriculture and holistic management pioneer, Allan Savory. We pick up where Allan states the need for this to go mainstream now. He goes on to propose how it might happen, while laying down the challenge. And outlines why he believes the change is very close. We go on to talk about the largely ‘accidental’ way Allan’s life and insights have evolved, and the subtle but vital role ‘gut feel’ has played. Then close with a brilliant story, illustrative of what he’s learned most about how people best navigate change.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerating Civilisation: Allan Savory on holistic management, scaling & a sense of survival’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/072-restoring-the-metropolis-of-living-earth
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Allan Savory in trusted company (supplied).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
This is a special extra to episode 75 with Allan Savory. We delve further here into a few areas that have been pivotal to Allan’s pioneering life. It starts with a little exchange on how wilderness and livestock-based agriculture can regenerate country together (and where they can’t). Then we turn to the wilderness within, going back to the incredibly formative time Allan experienced as a tracker. And another as the leader of the opposition party in Rhodesia, before being forced into political exile. All this unexpectedly led to meeting his wife Jody Butterfield, setting in tow a partnership that would change the world. We wind up with more on what success (and failure) looks like, including holistically managing government.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Regenerating Civilisation: Allan Savory on holistic management, scaling up & a sense of survival’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/075-regenerating-civilisation
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Allan delivering his famous TED talk - https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_fight_desertification_and_reverse_climate_change
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Haul back through the spread of regenerative agriculture in recent decades, and Allan Savory is there. His global influence is hard to overstate. Here we chat about his extraordinary life, and the evolution of his insights that have proved so transformative for so many. Thinking holistically is one thing. But how do we actually manage our lives and societies holistically? And ultimately, how do we engage the institutions that we’ve come to so distrust, to enable regeneration at scale - in whatever our role or walk of life? Far from just in agriculture, but certainly not without it. Allan believes it’s possible, and proposes how it might be done.
Allan’s the founder and President of The Savory Institute. He’s also Chair and co-founder, with wife Jody Butterfield, of the Africa Centre for Holistic Management back home in Zimbabwe. His TED talk has now been viewed over seven million times. And his most valued award was Australia’s esteemed International Banksia Award (picture on the website below) for the person doing the most for the environment on a global scale.
This episode marks what would have been the 77th birthday of the bloke who introduced me to systems thinking and living 20 years ago – a man who somehow did find his way in academia, albeit in notably different ways, the late Professor Frank Fisher. I couldn’t imagine a more fitting guest to mark the occasion, than Allan. We met online for this conversation on Saturday 22 November 2020.
Title slide pic: Allan Savory. You’ll see a terrific selection of other photos on the website (supplied) - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/075-regenerating-civilisation
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Scotland the Brave, by Eric M. Armour - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/AS220/AS220_1992_Compilation/14_Eric_M_Armour_-_Scotland_the_Brave - Sourced from the Free Music Archive under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Get more: You can also hear a special extra to this episode with Allan - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/075-extra-the-domino-effect
The Savory Institute, including Allan’s famous text and a new handbook, with courses, global network etc. - https://savory.global/
The Africa Centre for Holistic Management - https://africacentreforholisticmanagement.org/
Allan’s 2020 Tony Coote Memorial Lecture for The Mulloon Institute (lecture starts 7 minutes in) - https://savory.global/tony-coote-memorial-lecture/
And you can find my conversations with some of those mentioned in our conversation (such as Terry McCosker in ep. 67 & the Henggelers in the Kimberley in ep. 25) – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible in 2020. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract from episode 74 featuring the end of my conversation with the founding director and current Chair of Perth City Farm, Rosanne Scott. We’d just been talking about some of the powerful stories of Aboriginal heritage where City Farm is located. That lead to the exchange we start with here, about arts and culture being central to organising societies in holistic, fulfilling and effective ways. We go on to trace this theme through Rosanne’s life – from her childhood in Kolkata, to her early incarnation as a primary school teacher, and on through a host of divergent and extraordinary threads that led to City Farm, and beyond.
Join us as we follow Rosanne through the Theosophical Society and Findhorn, to the PIA Wadjuri community and Wooleen Station in the Murchison, to Activate the Wheat Belt and the year of the pandemic. We end up at her life mantra, and some very moving and entertaining personal reflections.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘City Farm: From industrial wasteland to cultural icon, with founding director Rosanne Scott’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/074-city-farm
You’ll find a series of terrific photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Perth City Farm (supplied).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Last year was the 25th birthday of a cultural icon and regenerative hub, nestled into the inner eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. City Farm is an extraordinary place – an urban farm with a big vision. This half hectare block was a degraded industrial wasteland. But an inspired community transformed it into a place for organic food, farming, community connection, arts, enterprise and education that enables people to live richly and regeneratively.
It’s first load of soil actually came from the original theatre production of another cultural phenomenon, Bran Nue Dae. So much of how City Farm came to be is an incredible story, often looking far from likely. And in the current context of the world, it feels like a powerful symbol of what’s possible, and an instructive experience for going about it.
Rosanne Scott is a colourful, open-hearted visionary. She was founding director of City Farm for its first 17 years, and is now Chair. All the while, she has been a trailblazer across many other areas and projects, all over WA, and has been honoured by organisations across the political and cultural spectrum for her decades of pioneering work.
Born in Calcutta to a South Indian Anglican Minister and accomplished Armenian mother, and initially a primary school teacher in Australia, not much of Rosanne’s story seemed particularly likely either.
We met up at City Farm a couple of days ago for this conversation.
Title slide pic: Rosanne Scott (supplied). See more photos on the website - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/074-city-farm
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: Perth City Farm – https://www.perthcityfarm.org.au/ Trillion Trees - https://trilliontrees.org.au/ Rosanne Scott - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosanne-scott-2344454b/ And the WA Museum dedication to Fanny Balbuk, the Aboriginal woman who continued to walk the Songlines as the colonial settlement of Perth grew - http://museum.wa.gov.au/explore/wetlands/aboriginal-context/fanny-balbuk
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract from episode 73 featuring the end of my conversation with Amy Steel, former Australian netballer, global EcoAthletes and Sports Environment Alliance Ambassador, and Senior Manager | Sustainability and Climate Change at Deloitte, and Lily Brazel, now former Australian hockey player, global EcoAthletes Ambassador, and founder of Stature Clothing (including its podcast The State of Us).
We pick up here with Lily’s bombshell, letting go of her lifelong dream of playing for the Hockeyroos at the Olympics. And we follow the threads through navigating change and our deeper purpose, empowering sports people to step up on what matters most, and the stories that connect us to our genuinely ‘super’ human nature.
Leading into the next Australian summer here again evokes images of last summer’s horror fires. Caught up in that cataclysmic event were mass cancellations of sporting events, and extensive damage to sporting facilities and clubs across the country. Since then, the northern hemisphere fires, and of course the related pandemic (another symptom of destabilised planetary conditions), rammed home the message - just how vulnerable we are on our current trajectory. That has spurred another level of engagement by sports people and organisations everywhere, to help us change that trajectory. Sport is such an important, enlivening and powerful part of societies everywhere, so the value of sport in this transition can’t be understated.
So here’s the back end of my conversation with two international athletes who have felt all this acutely, and are stepping up in brilliant ways.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘The Biggest Sports Story: Climate, business and a sense of ultimate success’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/073-the-biggest-sports-story
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Amy Steel and Lily Brazil playing their new roles for the bigger team (supplied).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening.
Amy Steel and Lily Brazel are outstanding international athletes. Well, Amy was. Until a heat stroke after a pre-season game prematurely ended her career. Still suffering the effects today, she’s set upon a path of working with big business to help achieve perhaps humanity's greatest milestone - meeting the Paris Climate Agreements. Amy’s quickly established herself as Senior Manager, Sustainability and Climate Change at Deloitte, while also being a global Ambassador for EcoAthletes and the Australian Sports Environment Alliance.
Lily’s a slightly different story. Still at the outset of her international sports career, as part of the Hockeyroos – the successful Australian women’s hockey team – Lily was in training for the postponed Tokyo Olympics. This was a lifelong dream. But dropping a bombshell just prior to this conversation, she revealed she’s resigned from the team. In Lily’s case, it was the start of her international career that was transformative. And living by her values is forging a changing path. That path includes founding a business called Stature Clothing, a sports clothing brand with the mantra to ‘repair, repurpose & regenerate – that waste is not an option’.
Leading into the next Australian summer here again evokes images of last summer’s horror fires. Caught up in that cataclysmic event were mass cancellations of sporting events, and extensive damage to sporting facilities and clubs across the country. Since then, the northern hemisphere fires, and of course the related pandemic (another symptom of destabilised planetary conditions), rammed home the message - just how vulnerable we are on our current trajectory. That has spurred another level of engagement by sports people and organisations everywhere, to help us change that trajectory. Sport is such an important, enlivening and powerful part of societies everywhere, so the value of sport in this transition can’t be understated.
Here’s my conversation with two international athletes who have felt all this acutely, and are stepping up in brilliant ways.
Title slide pic: Amy Steel and Lily Brazil at the height of their international sports careers (supplied). (See more pics on the website - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/073-the-biggest-sports-story
Game sounds at the start of the episode are from the 2011 Trans-Tasman netball championship win that Amy was a part of, sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z67Yw1YljTI&feature=emb_logo
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: Amy Steel - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-steel-296b5a75/
Lily Brazel and Stature Clothing - https://www.statureclothing.com.au/
The Australian Sports Environment Alliance National Summit, online throughout November 2020, featuring Amy, Lily, Anthony and many others - https://www.regennarration.com/events/sea-summit-2020
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract from episode 72 featuring the end of my conversation with author, systems thinker and regenerative soils educator, Nicole Masters.
We talk about what she’s seen of human transformation, particularly where people have been navigating change pro-actively, as opposed to responding to trauma. We go on to chat about where the regenerative movement is at, her changing focus, and the powerful marriage of story-tellers with the regeneration happening on the ground.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Restoring the Metropolis of Living Earth: From the chemical paradigm to nature’s paradigm’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/072-restoring-the-metropolis-of-living-earth
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Nicole Masters (supplied).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This extra to episode 72 features an additional few minutes with author, systems thinker and regenerative soils educator, Nicole Masters. It stems from the enthralling part of our conversation in the main episode about soil, the microbiome, gut health and our immune systems (from around the 40-minute mark). This triggered a question that I’d thought about a while back, after speaking with Dr Zach Bush on all this for episode 62. What are the implications of all this for the polarised debates around vaccinations?
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, ‘Restoring the Metropolis of Living Earth: From the chemical paradigm to nature’s paradigm’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/072-restoring-the-metropolis-of-living-earth
You’ll find a series of photos on that web page too.
Title slide pic: Nicole Masters (supplied).
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
The world is desertifying at a truly alarming rate. It’s estimated that thirty footy fields of soil are lost per minute around the world. And after thousands of years of human agriculture, there may only be 60 harvests left in those soils. But if you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ll know there’s another option here – a regenerative transformation is emerging with at times staggering speed and success. And in some of my recent conversations, you’ll have heard me mention one of the brilliant – and entertaining - women leading the way.
Nicole Masters is one of the world’s most respected advocates and educators in regenerating our food and related systems. She is a systems thinker, regenerative soils educator, founding director of Integrity Soils, and author of the brilliant book ‘For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate our Food Production Systems’. Nicole is bringing living soil into view, for farmers and other producers, and for all of us really - helping us see, value and tend, perhaps our most vital fellow living organism on the planet.
Nicole joins Anthony online from her home in Montana, USA, for a deeply personal conversation grounded in this transformative time.
Title slide pic: Nicole Masters and friend (supplied). See the website for more pics - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/072-restoring-the-metropolis-of-living-earth
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae.
Get more: You can hear more of my conversation with Nicole in an extra to this episode, coming soon.
https://www.integritysoils.co.nz/ (including a link to Nicole's renowned TED talk and more on her book)
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract of our live panel conversation from the end of episode 71, ‘The Law of the Land: Creating a regenerative system of law’. Each speaker has just presented for 10 minutes, so we pick up here at the beginning of our all-in conversation with Professor Kate Auty, Dr Alessandro Pelizzon, Nicola Rivers and Michael Leunig.
It starts with Kate relating the success of the Koori Courts to our collective needs right now. We go on to explore varied cultural understandings of law and the living world, where and how people are making law work well, and how we might reframe our thinking to regenerate the law of the land.
Title slide pic (L-R): Michael Leunig and Anthony James (obscured here but visible in full on the website), Kate Auty, Nicola Rivers and Alessandro Pelizzon (by Chris Grose).
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 71, ‘The Law of the Land: Creating a regenerative system of law’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/071-the-law-of-the-land
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to an extra with the rest of this conversation along with audience Q&A. And there are some photos of the event on the website.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This extra to episode 71 features the rest of our live conversation with Professor Kate Auty, Dr Alessandro Pelizzon and Nicola Rivers. We pick up the last 5 minutes of our conversation on stage, before 20 minutes or so of outstanding audience Q&A. The conversation delves further here into the global movement for the rights of nature, including where it’s being done well, the “intensely practical” role we have in all this, and how to think about law as part of the overarching transition to regenerative societies.
Title slide pic: Coolamon tree (source: https://www.exploroz.com/places/108183/wa+coolamon-blaze-tree)
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode, The Law of the Land: Creating a regenerative system of law - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/071-the-law-of-the-land
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, and a photo of the panel in action on the website.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Decades of legal protection for the living world haven’t stopped it being progressively destroyed. So what do we need to do, and what’s currently being done, to regenerate the law of the land and better protect and restore the living world?
Thinking about all this again in recent weeks, prompted me to go back to a recording of a live panel event I produced on the topic at Melbourne’s Federation Square back in 2015 (billed Preventing Crimes Against Nature at the time). I was moved all over again by the conversation that night, featuring some of the major system changes at play, and the cultural changes so intertwined with them.
You’ll hear:
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Nicola Rivers, co-CEO of Environmental Justice Australia, who came to this event directly from the first national conference of the Panel of Experts on Environmental Law deliberating on the 'next generation' of legislative frameworks for the protection of nature;
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Dr Alessandro Pelizzon is now Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University, one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, and supported the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
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Professor Kate Auty, brilliant community figurehead, former Victorian and ACT Commissioner of Sustainability and Environment, and now Chair of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria; and
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Michael Leunig, National Living Treasure, cartoonist and esteemed elder of the Understandascope, generating a wellspring of commentary on political, cultural and emotional life spanning more than forty years.
This event was organised a little on the fly, so while we tried to have a First Nations voice directly on this panel, it didn’t happen on this occasion (though my conversation with Tyson Yunkaporta for the previous episode 70 speaks straight into this one in many ways, as does an earlier conversation with Anne Poelina for episode 21).
Join us for a series of 10 minute presentations from each speaker (in the sequence above), before our all-in conversation.
Note: Ellen Sandell, MP for the seat of Melbourne where this event was held, sent a brief message in to the event, which is why you’ll hear her referred to in the conversation.
Title slide pic: Gantheaume Point, near Broome in the Kimberley region of WA (Anthony James).
With thanks to Carly, James and the Understandascope team for co-creating this event, Chris Grose from Scout Films, and the National Sustainable Living Festival.
Music: Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae - see a wonderful film clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYAyUK8WWC4&feature=youtu.be
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation with audience Q&A in an extra to this episode - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/071-extra-the-coolamon-trees
Australian Story - https://www.abc.net.au/austory/breaking-new-ground/12697330
Aussies can take vital action ahead of the federal government’s current bill reaching the Senate shortly - https://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/end-animal-extinction#gs.h26qat
With the growing movement asserting ‘First Law’, you can support this petition from the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council - https://www.change.org/t/first-law-en-gb
Dr Alessandro Pelizzon - https://www.scu.edu.au/about/contacts/staff-directory/staff/30709.php
Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law - http://www.placesyoulove.org/expertpanel/
Environmental Justice Australia - https://www.envirojustice.org.au/
David Mowaljarlai - https://www.magabala.com/products/yorro-yorro
The Understandascope, building on the legacy of my old mate and mentor Frank Fisher - https://www.regennarration.com/understandascope
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
On Monday 28 September, one of this country’s most brilliant and long-standing documentary series, Australian Story, featured regenerative farmer and best-selling author, Charles Massy AO. Charles’ extraordinary book, ‘Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, A New Earth’ has been described by Paul Hawken as “a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence.”
Charles writes and talks about the growing repertory of stories of what are in some cases extraordinary tales of regeneration – including his own. He also takes a look behind that regeneration, at how change happens not just in the land, but in the landscape of our minds.
This is an extract of my conversation with Charles Massy at his Severn Park farm a couple of years ago, just prior to his touring the global edition of the book. You’ll hear the last half hour or so of what became episode 32, ‘An Underground Insurgency: Regenerative Agriculture & Human Transformation’. It remains one of the top handful of episodes played on this podcast, and one of my most cherished and memorable conversations.
Title slide pic: New trees as part of the patchwork restoring biodiversity, ecological & farm function (Anthony James).
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in episode 32, ‘An Underground Insurgency: Regenerative Agriculture & Human Transformation’. You’ll find a series of photos and links in the show notes there too, including to an extra with Charles - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-an-underground-insurgency
Watch the Australian Story episode on Charles, streaming worldwide - https://www.abc.net.au/austory/breaking-new-ground/12697330
And if you'd like to hear more from Dianne and Ian Haggerty, also featured in the Australian Story episode on Charles, listen to our recent conversation on location in the WA wheat belt - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story.
And thanks for listening.
There are so many terrific parts of this episode with Tyson Yunkaporta that, true to the title of this extract, really invite you to come sit with us for the hour and a bit of the main episode (and the extra if you'd like more). But having said that, there is another little extract I did want to highlight. It’s our foundational exchange early in the piece on long-form podcasting being the new camp fire. Particularly in the absence of being around a real fire for much of this year, I like Tyson’s articulation of this frame. And his subsequent reflection on what this says about our allegedly shrinking attention spans. So thanks for joining us by this fire, and the many others being lit.
Title slide pic: Tyson with his daughter at the launch of Sand Talk (supplied – full pic is on the web page of the main episode, below).
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 70, ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/070-sand-talk
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to an extra with Tyson. There are a series of photos on the main episode page too.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract of my conversation with Tyson Yunkaporta from the end of episode 70, ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’. It starts with me suggesting to Tyson, in the wake of our conversation to this point, that a particular tale in his book might offer us a touchstone for our yarn. It turns out he’d never been asked about this part of his book before, but I’d noted it’s something he thinks about every day. The minutes that ensued have stayed with me – and Tyson too, I’ve been humbled to learn since. And they run here into an awesome story surrounding his choice of music.
While, in a way, it’s tough to take this out of the ‘camp fire’ context of our conversation, this sequence might not just offer a touchstone for this yarn, but in many ways for the podcast as a whole.
Title slide pic: Oldman Juma, in a photo from the launch of Sand Talk. Tyson and his young daughter also appear in this photo, which you can find in full on the main episode page below (pic supplied by Tyson).
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 70, ‘Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, saving the world & living creation’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/070-sand-talk
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to an extra with Tyson. There are a series of photos on the main episode page too.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This extra to episode 70 features the rest of my conversation with Tyson Yunkaporta, author of the award-winning book Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. This is the part of our conversation that picked up after Tyson’s toilet stop. We delve further here into the universality of loss in being separated from land, the fascinating convergence of thinking around the centrality of the gut to our larger intelligence or big spirit, and the essential value of being with those different to us.
Title slide pic: Tyson Yunkaporta. Source: the Team Human podcast.
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode 70, Sand Talk: Indigenous thinking, living creation & saving the world – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/070-sand-talk
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too. With some additional photos on our website.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Tyson Yunkaporta is the author of award-winning book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, and a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne. He’s also a poet and artist carving traditional tools and weapons, processes that were central to writing the book.
Tyson belongs to the Apalech Clan from Western Cape York in far north Queensland, with community/cultural ties all over Australia. Fellow Indigenous writer, last year’s Miles Franklin Award winner Melissa Lucashenko, called Sand Talk ‘An extraordinary invitation into the world of the Dreaming’. Tommy Orange, best-selling author of ‘There There’, said ‘This book shows how vital and alive and essential Indigenous ways of being and thinking are.’
Tyson’s Australian publisher Text describes the book as looking at global systems from an Indigenous perspective, asking how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation, and how we can do things differently. A few months ago, Sand Talk was published internationally by Harper Collins, with this statement: A paradigm-shifting book in the vein of Sapiens that brings a crucial Indigenous perspective to historical and cultural issues of history, education, money, power, and sustainability—and offers a new template for living.
Well, it’ll be wonderfully new to many, and of course profoundly old to others. Either way, it’s rich and essential terrain to be travelling together. Especially with the spirit of generosity and trust that Tyson embodies here. I’m still feeling deeply moved by this one. And frankly, changed again.
This conversation was recorded Thursday 13 August.
Title slide pic: Tyson Yunkaporta from Australian publisher Text’s promotional video for the book (see our website for more pics). Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PZMGYPqs0Q
Music: Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.
Get more: You can hear more of my conversation with Tyson in the extra to this episode, This Galactic Executive Function - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/070-extra-this-galactic-executive-function
Original Australian version of ‘Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World’, published by Text - https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/sand-talk
International version of the book, published by Harper Collins - https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062975645/sand-talk/
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract from what has quickly become one of the most played episodes on this podcast - and the second most played episode in the last year (behind only my conversation with Zach Bush MD, the keynote international guest to RCS Australia’s Conference scheduled next year). It features the last 20 minutes of my conversation with Terry McCosker for episode 67, Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia: Dr Terry McCosker on life, death and learning true power.
We talk about the power of intention, where the regenerative economy is at in Australia (prompted by a revealing exchange with Hunter Lovins on her home state of Colorado in episode 61), some of Terry’s pioneering story and the history of a movement, the perspectives he’s come to from all that, and his compelling belief and vision for Australia and beyond.
Title slide pic: off the RCS website.
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 67 – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/067-behind-the-greatest-regenerative-agriculture-movement-in-australia
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to a special extra with Terry.
You can also hear my conversation with Terry’s close friends and fellow regenerative agriculture pioneers, Dianne and Ian Haggerty, on location in the wheat belt of WA, for episode 68 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This is an extract from my conversation with Dianne and Ian Haggerty for episode 68, Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health and community. You'll hear the last 20 minutes of the main episode, back at the homestead, after we’d been getting around a couple of the farms over the preceding days.
We talk about how the Haggerty's are creating and supporting ‘work to own’ and value-add enterprises to help regenerate community on country. This is a great place to live, they say, with plenty of space and opportunity. And they’re helping people do it. We go on to chat about what’s amazed them, and ignited others, on their extraordinary regenerative journey. And given they’ll tell you they’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible, we explore how people everywhere can go about it.
Title slide pic: Di, Ian & Anthony recording on location in the wheat belt of Western Australia. (Pic: Olivia Cheng).
You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 68, ‘Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to some extras. There are a series of photos on the main episode page too.
You can also hear my conversation with Mark Taylor from Miller & Baker in North Perth (talked about in this extract) for episode 69, ‘Communities Were Built Around This: The return of the miller and baker’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/069-communities-were-built-around-this
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Mark Taylor is the miller and baker at the Miller + Baker store, recently opened in North Perth. It is a spectacular American Stone Mill (the first of its kind in Western Australia), and an amazing bakery, but that’s not the half of it. You might remember in my conversation with pioneering regenerative farmers Dianne and Ian Haggerty, for episode 68, that they mentioned some of their ‘natural intelligence’ grains go to this local miller and baker. Well, I’ve followed the grain’s trail to hear more of this brilliant story.
Mark had barely even run a mill before embarking on this adventure. But with wife Rachel, they found an increasing passion for it, and a growing base of support, and opened late last year. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, and partly because it, business has taken off. They find themselves open every day of the week now, with rapidly growing volumes of regeneratively grown grains coming in from the wheat belt, and out via the mill. And their vision has only just begun.
Mark was kind enough to show me around this pretty special venture – the sort of local processor and store that seems so central to what is needed now – for healthier food and communities, secure and joyful supply chains, and no less than a functional living world as a whole.
Title slide pic: supplied (see more photos on the website - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/069-communities-were-built-around-this).
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Get more: Miller + Baker - https://www.millerandbaker.com.au/
Hear more about where the grains come from, in my conversation with Dianne & Ian Haggerty on location in the wheat belt: Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
This additional special extra to episode 68 features a series of conversations at the homestead that were reluctantly cut from the main episode, along with some off-the-record exchanges around the fire one evening. Together, they chart an important and moving part of the story. From how business is being done with the natural intelligence system, and the opportunities being sought for all – and not just with carbon. To the intuitive depth underpinning their re-connection with Country, and how we might better engage with the land and its traditional custodians to bring that to the forefront.
We start by the fire, where families and friends gathered at dusk. You’ll hear some of those voices in the off-the-record grabs in the second half of this extra. Then jump in the ute with us, as we head back to the homestead.
Title slide pic: The view from the off-the-record fireside conversation that features in this special extra (Pic: Anthony James).
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 68, ‘Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too, including to another extra on the Haggerty’s back story. You’ll find a series of photos on the main episode page too.
You can also hear my conversation with Terry McCosker (Terry is referenced towards the end of this extra) for episode 67, ‘Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/067-behind-the-greatest-regenerative-agriculture-movement-in-australia
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
In this special extra to episode 68, we delve into the fascinating back story of Di and Ian’s ‘world breakthrough’ operation. We talk about how they came to their key insights and breakthroughs, Di’s formative experience in the health industry, what owning a remote roadhouse taught them, some of the extraordinary people, places and communities who’ve influenced them on the journey, and yes, how they were told they’d never make it.
Ian and Di Haggerty were raised in farming families. They’re both of the wheat belt in WA. But that line of work didn’t pan out initially, so they headed to other places and professions. When running a roadhouse in the remote Kimberley of Western Australia, they spent formative time with Aboriginal communities and influential pastoralists, and the lights were switched on. They picked up a degraded farm back in the wheat belt and transformed it. That’s now the foundation of their regenerative mission, progressively picking up farms, now totalling around 65,000 acres, each on the regenerative path with staggering speed and success.
Title slide pic: The sheep at the heart of the ‘natural intelligence’ operation, grazing in the distance under the rainbow. (Pic: Anthony James)
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation on the main episode 68, ‘Natural Intelligence Farming: The ‘world breakthrough’ regenerating land, health & community’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/068-natural-intelligence-farming
You’ll find a series of links in the show notes of the main episode too.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Dianne and Ian Haggerty form a highly respected, pioneering regenerative farming duo. I’ve come to visit them in the central wheat belt of Western Australia, to learn more about what Charles Massy has called their ‘world breakthrough’ operation. They call it ‘natural intelligence’ farming. Guided by the microbiome, and a whole host of other living systems, the Haggerty’s are regenerating degraded drylands grappling with salinity, chemical residues, climate and other compounding issues, and turning it into thriving cropland, even with as little as 100ml of annual rain.
They’re finding it resulting in an extraordinary array of benefits, including clean quality produce, significant carbon drawdown, and a much less stressful way of life. And it doesn’t stop there. From detoxifying even the notorious herbicide glyphosate, to returning fresh water to salt-ridden lakes, they are constantly surprised by what nature is turning up. And they achieve all this while successfully producing for both local and global markets, and backing in the next generation of regenerative farmers.
Ian and Di currently run around 65,000 acres of farmland, each on the regenerative path with staggering speed and success. And that’s recasting all sorts of possibilities – for human health and prosperity, animal welfare, regional communities, and a regenerative economy and culture more broadly. With the UN forecasting we have less than 60 harvests left in our degrading soils, this has global relevance.
I got around a couple of the farms with Di and Ian – in some brilliant rare rain – for this conversation (recorded on 17 and 18 July 2020).
Title slide pic: Ian and Dianne Haggerty. Photo: Anthony James.
Get more: Tune into the special extra with Di & Ian, coming later this week.
And catch Di & Ian (along with Charles Massy) on Australian Story, screening on the ABC in September 2020 - https://www.abc.net.au/austory/
Ground Cover, a short film featuring Di & Ian Haggerty by Smart Soil Media - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBGyPtY2JYw
You can hear my conversation with Zach Bush MD, for episode 62 'Launching Project Biome' - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/062-launching-project-biome
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
In this special extra to episode 67, we talk about some of the key changes Terry’s observed over the decades, and how to keep them coming. We also elaborate on the vision he articulated in the main episode, including some major shifts in supply chains and some of the positive politics currently unfolding around carbon and biodiversity credits. And we delve more deeply into his stock in trade – what regenerative education looks like!
Terry tells the story of the teacher who triggered his growth from high school drop-out to where he’s at today. And another moving story anchors our closing conversation on the vital issues of drought and flood, fire and First Nations people, and trust, in the regeneration of country.
Title slide pic: from the RCS website.
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Get more: You can hear the rest of this conversation with Terry for episode 67, ‘Behind the Greatest Regenerative Agriculture Movement in Australia’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/067-behind-the-greatest-regenerative-agriculture-movement-in-australia
You’ll find a series of links with the main episode too.
Thanks to all the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Dr Terry McCosker is a formidable store of experience and wisdom, born of a love of the land and an acute sense of humanity, and forged through suffering unimaginable tragedy. And that’s alongside the trials and tribulations that come from simply being at the vanguard of significant change.
Terry is a farmer, self-described transient part-owner of the National Estate, and co-founder of RCS Australia. Charles Massy has called RCS this country’s leading broad-scale grazing and farming education company. And he says, “When I look back over the rise of regenerative agriculture in Australia, I see at the forefront Terry and Pam McCosker and their RCS organisation. Today it remains a world leader in the field.”
Terry is credited with bringing holistic grazing to Australia, having connected with global pioneers Stan Parsons and Allan Savory. But let it be known, he thought it was “the greatest pile of shit he’d ever seen”. He ended up embarking on extensive research testing the theories and practices for himself. When he became convinced of Parsons' and Savory’s work, “Thus began”, Massy says, “arguably the single greatest broad-acre regenerative agriculture movement to turn around land degradation and profitability in farming in this country.” Now there are around 10,000 producers around Australia, and the world, that have been involved in RCS’ programs.
Whatever your walk of life, and whatever angle you’re taking, or thinking of taking, in the regenerative movement, this conversation resonates on a deeply human level. It was recorded last Thursday, 30 July 2020.
Title slide pic: Terry McCosker (supplied).
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: Tune into the special extra with Terry, ‘Recarbonising the Economy, Regenerative Education & the Fire in the Belly of Reconciliation, with Terry McCosker' - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/067-extra-recarbonising-the-economy
RCS Australia’s International Conference – Convergence: Agriculture | Human and Planetary Health, featuring Zach Bush MD and many more, with Anthony James as MC - http://www.rcsic2020.com.au/
RCS Australia’s website - https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/
Project Pioneer, RCS' brilliant work on improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef - https://www.projectpioneer.com.au/
Listen to current RCS Chairman, David McLean, in conversation for episode 44 ‘Stop Riding the Unicorn: Empowering the regenerative agriculture movement’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/039-stop-riding-the-unicorn
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
David Pollock is one of Australia’s most prominent regenerative pastoralists. You may have seen David and his wife Frances on ABC TV’s Australian Story. You may also have heard my previous conversations with them on this podcast. The most recent of those was when David’s brilliant book was released, almost a year ago. It’s called ‘The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource’, and it’s been described as ‘The astonishing story of reviving the oldest land on Earth’.
Well, a lot has happened in a year, so I’m back at Wooleen Station to see how David and Frances have been experiencing it. David’s book has been shortlisted for the Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer, carbon trading has been formally introduced on pastoral lands in Western Australia, and of course COVID-19 has happened.
We also talk about one of David’s key proposals in his book, that we didn’t cover last time – how mining could be harnessed towards the regeneration of country. There are a few other updates on our chat from last year too. And while it’s barely rained here in the last year, unfortunately, this meant we got a look at how the enduring health of the landscape was holding up.
David and I took a walk around the Station museum and workshop on a cool afternoon a little over a week ago, for this conversation.
Title slide: The Wooleen Station Homestead.
You'll find a range of photos from this visit to Wooleen Station on the website. (All photos by Anthony James.)
Get more: David’s book ‘The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource’ - https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-wooleen-way
Wooleen Station – https://wooleen.com.au
You can hear the detailed conversation David and I shared on the release of his book ‘The Wooleen Way’ in episode 44 – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/044-the-wooleen-way
You can also hear David and his wife Frances in conversation with Charles Massy and me in episode 16 ‘Grassroots Revolution’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/016-grassroots-revolution
And my conversation with Frances back at Wooleen Station in episode 9 ‘Regenerating Land & Food Systems’ – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/009-regenerating-land-food-systems
Thanks to all the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thank you for helping to keep the show going.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This is an extract from our conversation on Jansz Beach overlooking Ningaloo Reef, for episode 65. It features the first 15 minutes of our chat on the Resilient Reefs Initiative – the vision, the successful model it’s based on, and what’s happened so far. That includes some brilliant recent developments bringing people together, including some breaking news regarding the Traditional Custodians and now Native Title holders.
The last 5 minutes or so is drawn from the end of the episode. It includes how we can help, an epiphany that sparked some of the work, and a closing story that encapsulates some of the power and meaning of coral reefs. Some great Australian music we could licence for the podcast sends us home (thanks to Adam Gibson) – and even a little bloopers reel. Oops!
Get more: You can listen to the full conversation in the main episode 65 – Keeping Coral: Regenerating coral reef communities & livelihoods, with Dr Peter Barnes & Joel Johnsson - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/065-keeping-coral
Title slide pic: Ningaloo Reef, by Joel Johnsson.
Music: On the Punt, by Adam Gibson and The Aerial Maps - https://adamfgibson.com/the-aerial-maps/
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the podcast going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
The RegenNarration is back at the magnificent Ningaloo Reef for a couple of firsts - the first conversation in person for the year, and a world first collaboration aiming for the survival of the world’s coral reefs, and the communities that depend on them.
Dr Peter Barnes is the Marine Park Coordinator at Ningaloo Reef – one of five World Heritage listed coral reefs. Australia is blessed with the responsibility for two of these – the other being the Great Barrier Reef – which only serves to heighten the importance of the work Peter and co. are doing here. One of Peter’s newest colleagues is Joel Johnsson. Joel is the Chief Resilience Officer recently appointed at Ningaloo for the global Resilient Reefs Initiative.
Of course, coral reefs have been resilient systems for ages – inter-woven with traditional cultures. But the scale of damaging human impact is now jeopardising their existence. Even at 1.5 degrees global warming, the IPCC expects the coral reefs of the world would be largely wiped out. In other words, even the best-case target set by the Paris agreement would risk the annihilation of some of the world’s greatest wonders. And one of its greatest generators of human wellbeing, prosperity and meaning.
In that context, the Resilient Reefs Initiative is taking a holistic approach – with people at its heart. How can human communities and agencies recreate the way we live with coral reefs, to enhance the resilience of the whole?
We’ll need greenhouse gas emission targets met in accordance with the Paris agreement, for a start. And in all likelihood the carbon drawdown efforts we’ve been talking about on this podcast, with regenerative agriculture and other holistic management practices. Alongside these efforts, the timing and delivery of Resilient Reefs is seen as critical to the survival of the world’s coral reefs, and the enormous variety of human and other life that thrives with them. And you’ll hear some breaking news on how the traditional custodians remain central to it.
To talk about it, Pete, Joel and I sat down at Jansz Beach, overlooking Ningaloo.
With thanks to the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions for enabling this conversation.
Title slide pic: Ningaloo Reef, by Joel Johnsson. You’ll find some other brilliant pics of the Reef by Joel on our website.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra On the Punt, by Adam Gibson and The Aerial Maps - https://adamfgibson.com/the-aerial-maps/
Get more: The global Resilient Reefs Initiative - https://barrierreef.org/what-we-do/projects/resilient-reefs
Thanks to all the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thank you for helping to keep the show going.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This is an extract from the end of my conversation with Tony Rinaudo, the award-winning Senior Climate Action Advisor for World Vision, aka The Forest Maker. We talk about his global vision, how societies can come to read the land again, and how the extraordinary summer bushfires triggered a major new global collaboration recently launched in Australia. But it was the story Tony told of a truth and reconciliation process in Africa that perhaps holds the key to all of it.
Get more: You can listen to the full conversation with Tony in the main episode 64 - The Forest Maker: And the largest positive environmental transformation in Africa, with Tony Rinaudo AM - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/064-the-forest-maker
You’ll find a link there to a 5 minute special extra too, featuring a short story from the time of Tony’s departure from Niger: ‘We Were Nothing (the trees were almost a side-event)’.
Title slide pic: the moment of Tony’s epiphany, changing a flat tyre in Niger in the early 1980’s (credit unknown).
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thank you!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
After we’d signed off on our conversation for the podcast, Tony and I kept talking. Thankfully I hadn’t stopped recording, because what followed could have been the first thing we talked about. In some ways, it sums up everything. So here it is. A little of our parting exchange. Starting with a story from the time of Tony's leaving Niger.
If you’ve come to this special extra first, head over to the main episode 64 to hear the rest of my conversation with Tony Rinaudo AM (link below).
Get more: You can listen to the full conversation with Tony in the main episode 64 - The Forest Maker: And the largest positive environmental transformation in Africa, with Tony Rinaudo AM - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/064-the-forest-maker
Title slide pic: Halidou, from the village of Gangara, sitting among the trees (by Tony Rinaudo).
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Tony Rinaudo AM is the award winning Senior Climate Action Advisor for World Vision, also known as The Forest Maker. This Australian agronomist revolutionized reforestation in Africa, alongside the communities in which he worked, with a system called Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). In Niger alone, where the desert was still expanding 20 years ago, around six million hectares of land have been restored. Having spread to 24 countries in Africa, Tony’s vision is for it to reach 100 countries around the world this decade, and he’s not alone. The movement is fast spreading globally, including having a role in the recently launched Restore Australia project – a major new global collaboration.
The transformation in Niger has been called "probably the largest positive environmental transformation in the Sahel and perhaps in all of Africa," by internationally acclaimed environmental specialist Chris Reij. Though Tony will tell you the transformation was in the people first, starting with himself. He’ll also tell you that the solutions found in Africa worked because they were low-cost, rapid and scalable. And that the lessons he learnt living on the edge of the Sahara Desert relate to so much of what the rest of the world needs today.
Recognition for Tony’s decades of pioneering work has come in the form of multiple awards including the Commandeur de Merite, Agricole, Rep. du Niger, and the Right Livelihood Award. The latter was “for demonstrating on a large scale how drylands can be greened at minimal cost, improving the livelihoods of millions of people.” The Award went on to say, “What Rinaudo has created is much more than an agricultural technique, he has inspired a farmer-led movement.”
What Tony found was that the barriers to large-scale, rapid regeneration weren’t so much technical, as social. He realised that if it was people who had reduced the forest to a barren landscape, it would require people to restore it—and false beliefs, attitudes and practices would need to be challenged with truth, love and perseverance. And “if the lesson of Niger teaches us anything, it is that impossible changes can become possible with amazing rapidity – given the right conditions and intentions.”
So “what would be possible if all stakeholders—donors, scientists, governments, policy makers, business, NGOs, traditional and religious leaders and farmers—partnered and were serious about land restoration? Technically, there is no reason why simultaneously 5 million hectares of land could not be restored in multiple countries within five years.”
Tony joined me to talk about all this.
Note: Sound quality was a little scratchy at times, perhaps due to the storm at the time of recording. We managed to improve it as we went.
Title slide pic: Tony Rinaudo (by Silas Kosh). You’ll find some other photos on the website, including the very moment Tony had his epiphany fixing a flat tyre - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/064-the-forest-maker
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: FMNR Hub - https://fmnrhub.com.au/
The Forest Maker book - https://www.bookdepository.com/Tony-Rinaudo-Johannes-Dieterich/9783906304366?redirected=true&selectCurrency=AUD&w=AF45AU9J71MDQ4A80TJS
Restore Australia - https://www.evergreening.org/restore-australia-media-release/
A special 5 minute extra, ‘We Were Nothing (the trees were almost a side-event)’ - https://soundcloud.com/regennarration/64-extra-we-were-nothing-the-trees-were-almost-a-side-event-with-tony-rinaudo-am
Thanks to all the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thank you for helping to keep the show going.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This is an extract from the end of my conversation with Open Food Network co-founder, Kirsten Larsen, featuring the story of her personal transformation, and how to get more involved with regenerative food systems. It starts, though, with the story supermarkets trade off – the story of efficiency, economies of scale, and cheap food. And increasingly, to their credit, a story of greening – getting better with waste, for example.
But the model is still seeing the costs of cheap food being borne by farmers, landscapes, and public health. How it works is extremely opaque. And when crisis hits, supply chains have shown themselves to be highly vulnerable. In the end, this is a price we all pay. So what’s the new story? One that doesn’t play off farmers and landscapes against vulnerable eaters reliant on low cost food? One whose supply chains don't fall in a heap when we need them most? And one that ultimately generates more equitable, effective and regenerative distribution systems?
Title slide photo: Network co-founders Serenity Hill (left) and Kirsten Larsen (right) with their two children; supplied.
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in episode 63, Food Unincorporated: How a grass roots system went global, with Open Food Network co-founder Kirsten Larsen - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/063-food-unincorporated
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
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Kirsten Larsen is co-founder with partner Serenity Hill of the Open Food Network. It’s a not-for-profit, global collaboration building food distribution systems that are fair, local and transparent. The Network’s flagship open source platform had been successfully enabling ethical food distribution in multiple countries. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, it has gone to a whole new level, as producers look for alternative ways to sell quality produce, and eaters look for alternative ways to access it.
The Network reports a tenfold increase in people signing up to the platform, and a tenfold increase in turnover. This grass roots initiative now spans 13 countries, and continues to grow. As the greeting on the Open Food Network website puts it: Food Unincorporated - sometimes the best way to fix the system is to start a new one.
Kirsten is a farmer herself, and an Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, at the University of Melbourne. She sees her work as focused on the complex challenges of sustainability and resilient food systems, and on the design and implementation of responses that also support healthy communities and regional economic development.
Kirsten was kind enough to join me online from her home in Violet Town, Victoria, Australia.
Title slide pic: from the Shepparton News. Credit: Megan Fisher.
Recorded on Friday 12 June 2020.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: Open Food Network - https://openfoodnetwork.org.au/
Moving Feast - https://movingfeast.net/
The international award the Network won - https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/06/08/mozilla-announces-second-three-covid-19-solutions-fund-recipients/
Thanks to all the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thank you for helping to keep the show going.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
“The only thing limiting the future is the past.” – Zach Bush MD
This is a second extract from the end of my conversation with globally renowned physician, Zach Bush MD, picking up from where the previous extract on glyphosate left off.
Zach has been startled by our regenerative capacity, since his film Farmer’s Footprint became a global phenomenon. Now the broader project is about to launch - Project Biome. Its mission? No less than the universal adoption of regenerative agricultural, medical and related systems around the world.
The first half of this extract explores how it’s to be done, and the second half features some of Zach’s personal reflections on how he keeps at it, and how we can all be a part of it.
Title slide photo: Leia Vita, supplied.
Music: Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode 62, Launching Project Biome: A changing paradigm of human and planetary health, with Zach Bush MD - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/062-launching-project-biome
Non-toxic Neighborhoods - https://nontoxicneighborhoods.org/
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
“Glyphosate acts as a gateway chemical to all the rest.” – Zach Bush MD
This is an extract from my conversation with globally renowned physician, Zach Bush MD, on the notorious and ubiquitous chemical, glyphosate (found in the common herbicide RoundUp).
When I first heard Dr Zach Bush talk about the extent of the damage that the chemical glyphosate is doing to the biological underpinnings of life on Earth, it sank in me like a stone. Zach charts a bit of the chemical’s history here, we share a very personal conversation on its neurological impacts, and examine the patterns those impacts share with other chronic diseases. Then, of course, we explore the way out of this catastrophe – nature’s invitation to co-create the return of human and planetary health.
More on this from the primer to the main episode 62: Dr Zach Bush’s work charts the intimate, absolute connection between humans and humous – the earth and its soil. The soil and our gut are sisters, you could say, and carbon is our best mate. And while we flirt with superbugs and the ‘end of antibiotics’, we are courting what may even be greater disaster with the chemical glyphosate. Glyphosate’s touted strength of being water soluble appears to be proving the undoing of no less than the integrity of our physiological being – implicated in our epidemics of cancer, auto-immune issues and neurological conditions.
Title slide photo: by Leia Vita, supplied.
Get more: You can hear the rest of our conversation in episode 62, Launching Project Biome: A changing paradigm of human and planetary health, with Zach Bush MD - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/062-launching-project-biome
You can also hear what regenerative farmer and best-selling author Charles Massy AO had to say about glyphosate, in the special extra to our conversation for episode 32, Cultivating Regeneration from Industrial Wastelands - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-extra-cultivating-regeneration-from-industrial-wastelands
It also comes up in my conversation with SBS TV’s Gourmet Farmer, Matthew Evans, for episode 60, when talking about fake meat - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/060-on-eating-meat
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
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Here’s another little extra to my conversation with globally renowned physician, Zach Bush MD. We chatted a while longer, after our ‘formal’ podcast conversation had ended, about our respective paths in life. These few minutes inform so much about who Zach is today, so I ended up asking if he’d mind me sharing them here. With his kind permission, then, here’s a snapshot of Zach’s meandering path to medicine, through magical realism, traumatic awakenings, and deep grace.
If you’ve come to this special extra first, head over to the main episode 62 to hear the rest of my conversation with Zach Bush MD (link below).
Title slide photo: supplied.
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Get more: Listen to the main episode 62, Launching Project Biome: A changing paradigm of human and planetary health, with Zach Bush MD - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/062-launching-project-biome
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
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In this special extra to episode 62 with globally renowned physician, Zach Bush MD, we continue to delve into the coronavirus pandemic, through the lens of the microbiome. Zach has found that when you map soil degradation, air pollution and other toxicity over viral outbreaks, the coronavirus starts to look more like a poisoning than an infection.
If you’ve come to this special extra first, head over to the main episode 62 to hear the rest of my conversation with Zach Bush MD (link below).
Get more: Listen to the main episode 62, Launching Project Biome: A changing paradigm of human and planetary health, with Zach Bush MD - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/062-launching-project-biome
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Zach Bush MD is a renowned, triple board certified physician, and internationally recognized educator on the microbiome, as it relates to human health, soil health, food systems, and a regenerative future.
Dr Zach became highly decorated in the medical field, with multiple awards. Then a growing set of insights built towards a moment of transformation. His touchstone insight was that we don’t need to solve each of the many increasingly prevalent diseases – we need to regenerate the source of our health and vitality.
This led to ground breaking research on how our microbiome (a community of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) works - or more to the point, how communication happens between the microbiome and our human cells.
Zach has said the microbiome is more responsible for our health than our genes, and is actually the great coordinating force of biology on earth. And that we’re destroying it, with our dominant agricultural and medical systems.
At a time of pandemic, this is all the more valuable insight, and Zach outlines at length his perspective and findings related to COVID-19. You’ll find most of this in a special extra to this episode.
Zach’s work charts the intimate, absolute connection between humans and humous – the earth and its soil. The soil and our gut are sisters, you could say, and carbon is our best mate. And while we flirt with superbugs and the ‘end of antibiotics’, we are courting what may even be greater disaster with the chemical glyphosate.
Glyphosate’s touted strength of being water soluble appears to be proving the undoing of no less than the integrity of our physiological being – implicated in our epidemics of cancer, auto-immune issues and neurological conditions.
In response to all this, Zach has also been startled by our regenerative capacity and what he calls the intelligence of nature, since embarking on a film project called Farmer’s Footprint. This has become a global phenomenon, prompting the creation of a broader project called Project Biome. This is due to launch in a couple of months. Its mission? No less than the universal adoption of regenerative agricultural, medical and related systems around the world.
To talk about all this, Zach was kind enough to join me online from his home in Hawai’i.
Get more: Listen to the special extra to this episode, More Poisoning than Infection: A further look at COVID-19 with Zach Bush MD - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/062-extra-more-poisoning-than-infection
The website of Zach Bush MD - https://zachbushmd.com/ (incidentally, you’ll see a link to Zach’s petition at the top of the home page, for the creation of an international research centre)
Farmer’s Footprint film and project - https://farmersfootprint.us/
Convergence: Agriculture, Human and Planetary Health, the international conference featuring Zach Bush MD as keynote, and yours truly as MC, to mark the 30th anniversary of RCS Australia, 17-19 July 2021 - http://www.rcsic2020.com.au/
RCS Australia’s online Global Learning Hub, launched last month (May 2020) - https://www.rcsgloballearning.com/
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Interlude and concluding music by Jeremiah Johnson.
Thanks to all the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thank you for helping to keep the show going.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
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(Re-broadcast)
As elite sport resumes amidst the pandemic, the Royal Commission into Australia’s summer fires continues. So it seemed a good time to re-post this conversation with Dr Sheila Nguyen - to celebrate the return of top level sport, and to remember the rest of what sport can and needs to be in these times.
This Black Summer in Australia saw a national T20 cricket match cancelled due to smoke, international tennis players choking on the pollution, and sports facilities burned down around the country. A few weeks ago, Australia’s Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese tweeted: “It’s Australian Open time. The eyes of the world are on us. The world is seeing air so toxic that players are collapsing and others are needing medical treatment. We can’t just sit by and accept this as the new normal. We need climate action – now.”
Leaving aside the apparent contradictions in some of Mr Albanese’s other statements, this one well reflects our reality. And while fundraising by elite sport for communities most directly affected by the fires has been brilliant, and sport has been such an effective advocate in other areas of cultural life, the climate and extinction crises continue to threaten the places we love, and the things we love doing, including sport. So what role can sport play in reversing the trajectory of these crises, and furthering regenerative change?
Dr Sheila Nguyen has been working at bringing together sports from around the country over the last decade or so to explore just that. Sheila is co-founder and Executive Director of the Sports Environment Alliance. Its members range from the biggest clubs in the land, to the smallest - from the reigning Australian Rules premiers the Richmond Tigers Football Club, to the Swamp Rats cricket club, along with local governments and others with responsibilities around sport. It goes by the hashtag #noplanetnoplay.
Sheila was among the 2019 Australian Financial Review Top 100 Women of Influence, and is about to head to London next month to co-chair and MC the UN’s Sport for Climate Action’s Sport Positive event at Wembley Stadium. But as a lonely, overweight daughter of Vietnamese refugees, none of this seemed likely. Until sport changed her life.
Updates: Malcolm Speed finished his term as Chair of the Alliance soon after this conversation in January 2020. And the March Wembley event was postponed due to the COVID-19 shut-down.
Originally released on 18 February 2020.
Get more: Sports Environment Alliance - http://sportsenvironmentalliance.org/
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Title pic: The Sydney Cricket Ground covered in bushfire smoke in the summer of 2019-20 (AAP)
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support
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I feel compelled to post one last extract from the very end of my conversation with the legendary Hunter Lovins - for those who might prefer to listen in ‘chapters’, for those who might not have made it all the way through on first listening, and for those who might be particularly interested in the themes covered here. And because I’m still deeply moved by how our conversation culminated.
This extract segues directly from extract 2, where Hunter left off talking about trying to figure out how the rest of the world recovers from COVID-19. We explore her brilliant stories and current views of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, Wellbeing Governments Coalition, Regenerative Communities Network, the Club of Rome, Doughnut Economics Action Lab, and how Dana Meadows’ famous piece ‘Places to Intervene in a System’ was born.
Hunter Lovins is a best-selling author, including of the seminal Natural Capitalism, with Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins. She’s also founder and President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, founding Professor of Sustainable Management at the Bard MBA, a pioneering rancher, and Chief of Impact at Change Finance.
Hunter consults for companies and countries around the world, has been named Millennium TIME Magazine Hero of the Planet, and was awarded the 2008 Sustainability Pioneer Prize by the European financial community for her decades of pioneering work.
Get more: Listen to our conversation in full wherever you get your podcasts, or at our website https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/061-were-gonna-reinvent-everything-hunter-lovins
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Title slide: Hunter Lovins, sourced at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/naturalcapitalism/finer-future-creating-an-economy-in-service-to-lif
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This is a second brief extract from towards the end of my conversation with the legendary Hunter Lovins. It opens by looking at the tectonic shift that is apparently underway in the capital flows that will back in regenerative economies. Where banks are already looking at the stranded fossil fuel assets they’re reclaiming and wondering what to do with them. And where the opportunities on the other side of the ledger grow.
I heard Hunter say not long ago that the regenerative economy was already bigger than the extractive one in her home state of Colorado. But that nobody knows. So we talk about how they found out, how they engaged with 90% of the economy on it, and where else this might be true. Along with what to look out for.
So much has changed in just the last couple of months, in the world at large and in Hunter’s thinking. “Things are shifting,” she says. And “you can see the shape of the future.”
Hunter is a best-selling author, including of the seminal Natural Capitalism, with Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins. She’s also founder and President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, founding Professor of Sustainable Management at the Bard MBA, a pioneering rancher, and Chief of Impact at Change Finance.
Hunter consults for companies and countries around the world, has been named Millennium TIME Magazine Hero of the Planet, and was awarded the 2008 Sustainability Pioneer Prize by the European financial community for her decades of pioneering work.
Get more: Listen to our conversation in full wherever you get your podcasts, or at our website https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/061-were-gonna-reinvent-everything-hunter-lovins
Title slide: Hunter Lovins, sourced at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Lovins#/media/File:Hunter_Lovins.jpg
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
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"We can roll back climate change." - L. Hunter Lovins
This is a brief extract from episode 61 with the legendary Hunter Lovins, on the importance of the bio-regional scale – place and community - in creating regenerative economies. Especially now. There are a couple of great stories in this short clip, including more of her own.
Hunter is a best-selling author, including of the seminal Natural Capitalism, with Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins. She’s also founder and President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, founding Professor of Sustainable Management at the Bard MBA, a pioneering rancher, and Chief of Impact at Change Finance.
Hunter consults for companies and countries around the world, has been named Millennium TIME Magazine Hero of the Planet, and was awarded the 2008 Sustainability Pioneer Prize by the European financial community for her decades of pioneering work.
She also recently took out the Humungous Fungus Award – which is where we start this part of our conversation!
Get more: Listen to our conversation in full wherever you get your podcasts, or at our website https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/061-were-gonna-reinvent-everything-hunter-lovins
Title slide: Hunter Lovins, by West Coast Green sourced from - https://rachelsnetwork.org/hunter/
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Hunter Lovins has been a highly influential figure for many decades in the regenerative economies movement. She is another guest that I struggle to describe in a brief intro. To give you a little idea, she’s a best-selling author, including of the seminal Natural Capitalism, with Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins. She’s also founder and President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, founding Professor of Sustainable Management at the Bard MBA, a pioneering rancher, and Chief of Impact at Change Finance.
Hunter consults for companies and countries around the world, has been named Millennium TIME Magazine Hero of the Planet, and was awarded the 2008 Sustainability Pioneer Prize by the European financial community for her decades of pioneering work. I could go on. Oh, she also recently took out the Humungous Fungus Award – and we will talk about that!
I heard Hunter say not long ago, before the pandemic, that her research suggests the regenerative economy is already bigger than the extractive one in her home state of Colorado. But that nobody knows! So I asked Hunter if she’d join me to talk about it, along with how things are changing right now, and of course some of her brilliant life story.
Like my other extensive conversations with legendary figures in this space, like Hazel Henderson and Paul Hawken, this one drifted into ever more meaningful and heart felt exchanges as we went. I hope you enjoy this journey through Hunter’s life, these transforming times, and where we can go from here.
Our conversation includes why she ditched being a lawyer and accidentally became a regenerative rancher, her retrospective view on change and approaches to it over the decades (spoiler alert – where were the stories?), and the growing number of calls she’s receiving asking how to build a regenerative economy out of the COVID collapse.
So much of her thinking, she says, has changed in just the last couple of months - from what’s needed to transition towards renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, and the finance to back it in, to how she goes about her own life and work.
Hunter’s is a trans-partisan vision where we’re all in for societies that are better for people and planet – genuine prosperity. She’s helped set up so much of the world’s work to this end – including more recently the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and the Regenerative Communities Network.
Dana Meadows’ famous leverage points piece – Places to Intervene in a System – was seeded on Hunter’s whiteboard. This prompts a moving conclusion to our conversation reflecting on some of Dana’s profound insight.
We’re up against it, but we can still make something good of this situation, Hunter believes. Tectonic shifts are upon us. So where and how do we go from here?
This episode was recorded online on 7 May 2020.
Get more: Hunter’s organisation, Natural Capitalism Solutions - https://natcapsolutions.org/
Her most recent book ‘A Finer Future: Creating an economy in service to life’ - http://ourfinerfuture.com/
John Fullerton’s 8 principles (or qualities, as he’s currently speaking of them) of a regenerative economy - https://capitalinstitute.org/8-principles-regenerative-economy/
Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) - https://wellbeingeconomy.org/
Regenerative Communities Network - http://fieldguide.capitalinstitute.org/regenerative-communities-network.html
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This is a brief extract from the end of episode 60 with Matthew Evans, exploring a vision for how we can feed the world (well), in a way that regenerates communities, economies and the planet as a whole. All the more, how we can do it by building on the foundation of where most food is currently produced.
Matthew is a farmer and chef at Fat Pig Farm, host of the popular TV series Gourmet Farmer, and most recently the author of ‘On Eating Meat – the truth about its production, and the ethics of eating it’.
Get more:
Listen to our conversation in full wherever you get your podcasts, or at our website https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/060-on-eating-meat
Title slide: Matthew Evans, from the publisher’s website - https://www.murdochbooks.com.au/browse/books/other-books/On-Eating-Meat-Matthew-Evans-9781760637699
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support
Thanks for listening!
Matthew Evans is a chef, farmer, host of the popular TV series 'Gourmet Farmer', and most recently the author of ‘On Eating Meat – the truth about its production, and the ethics of eating it’. The publisher calls it ‘A scorching manifesto on the ethics of eating meat by the best placed person to write about it.’
This is a book and conversation that I’ve so been wanting to have. Whether you’re a meat eater, vegan or somewhere in between, this will change how you see things. And if Matthew has his way – and I hope he does – it’ll open up vast new possibilities for constructive dialogue, and truly vital systemic change.
Personally, I’ve been a meat eater, vegetarian, vegan, and now a meat eater again – but in a much different way than before. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ll be across some of my journey.
The matter of meat is massive, when it comes to the health of people, other animals, and the planet as a whole. Our summer fires here, and COVID-19 everywhere, bring that home even more. In that context, I felt compelled to allocate plenty of time to this one. I hope you find this time worth your while too.
Ordinarily, of course, I would love to have met up with Matthew in person on the Farm - it’s always so much more vivid when the place gets to speak too. But we’re blessed nonetheless to be able to connect online, across closed borders.
Get more: Fat Pig Farm - https://fatpig.farm/
The book ‘On Eating Meat: The truth about its production and the ethics of eating it’ - https://fatpig.farm/product/on-eating-meat/ or https://www.murdochbooks.com.au/browse/books/other-books/On-Eating-Meat-Matthew-Evans-9781760637699
For the Love of Meat documentary TV series - https://www.sbs.com.au/food/programs/gourmet-farmer
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Thanks to you, our generous supporters, for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
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This is a second brief extract, this time from the end of episode 59 with Dr Eduard Müller. Eduard is the founder of the University for International Cooperation, now at the heart of Regenerate Costa Rica. These closing words from Eduard were so resounding and impactful, they seemed worth sharing in their own discrete package.
I've received a number of comments from people strongly moved by this conversation. Thanks very much for sending your messages. It makes this all feel worthwhile.
You can listen to our conversation in full wherever you get your podcasts, or at our website https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/059-regenerate-costa-rica
Title slide: The launch of the Regenerative Costa Rica Hub in 2018. Pic: supplied.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and you have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This is a brief extract from episode 59 with Dr Eduard Müller, founder of the University for International Cooperation, now at the heart of Regenerate Costa Rica. It features a part of our conversation that focused on how Regenerate Costa Rica is fast gathering steam, both with local stakeholders and global institutions and networks.
Get more: Listen to our conversation in full wherever you get your podcasts, or at our website https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/059-regenerate-costa-rica
Title slide: Rancho Margot, Costa Rica. Eduard describes it as a demonstrative site for true regeneration. It was a degraded cattle farm 14 years ago and now very rich in biodiversity while providing agriculture, tourism and education. The photo is of the pig farm under green roofs and lots of biodiversity around. Pic: supplied.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Dr. Eduard Müller is founding President and Rector of la Universidad para la Cooperación Internacional (the University for International Cooperation) in Costa Rica. Eduard was a vet, till a growing sense of responsibility for state of the world, prompted a change of course. He got involved in the sustainability movement of the late 1980s, and after the pivotal Rio Summit in 1992, he went on to found the university. It now has thousands of graduates all over the world in regenerative development. And out of that, has sprung Regenerate Costa Rica.
Through collaborative work led by the University, Regenerate Costa Rica is working across bio-regions on site-based, holistic approaches to produce 3 key outcomes: high carbon capture in soils, increases in biodiversity, and improvements in human wellbeing. Regenerating land through natural and assisted processes is essential to this work, along with broader regeneration of the economy, politics and culture.
And in the broader global agenda, they are part of the growing Regenerative Communities Network, hosted by the Capital Institute. All that harks back to my very first podcast guest, the founder of that Institute. The ultimate goal? Reverse the high risk associated with having trespassed a number of planetary boundaries, to assure the safe operating space for humanity.
The early successes, willingness to change among farmers and ranchers, and the trajectory of the project and broader regenerative networks are wonderfully inspiring. Out of the current crisis of COVID-19, and the wider inter-related set of crises we’ve been bringing upon ourselves, the spirit of regeneration is alive.
Eduard has presented to organisations such as the World Meteorological Organization, the Latin American Parliament, the Parliamentary Confederation of the Americas, The Earth Charter, IUCN, national and provincial legislatures. And he has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, UN, IUCN, governments and various other organizations.
This episode was recorded on 25 March 2020.
Get more: Regenerate Costa Rica - http://fieldguide.capitalinstitute.org/costa-rica-hub.html
Regenerative Communities Network - https://regencommunities.net/
Universidad para la Cooperación Internacional (the University of International Cooperation) - https://uci.ac.cr/
Theme music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Title slide pic: supplied.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this episode possible. If you too value this podcast, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
“If, like us, you’re currently steeped in long days of homebound self-isolation, take a look around your dwelling and observe a moment of gratitude. The more topsy-turvy the world outside becomes, the more we can see the importance of a stable place to live, and that housing and health are often the same thing.” - ReasonstobeCheerful.world
Around the world, co-ops are playing a significant role in providing housing solutions, and in the process building empowered, sustainable and healthy communities. Up to 40% of housing in some cities around the world is in coops. Whether you’re talking financial, social, environmental, cultural or health outcomes, the benefits across the whole of society can be enormous.
So what are housing cooperatives? What are the main benefits and challenges? Why are they so successful in some parts of the world? And what’s needed to do more of them elsewhere?
To talk about all this, I hosted a panel brought together from around Australia by Eugenie Stockmann. Eugenie is an award-winning developer, sustainability consultant, affiliate of an international network of cohousing professionals, and now CEO of Co-operation Housing.
Joining her on the panel are:
- Dr Jasmine Palmer: researcher of collaborative housing and sustainable design, and a member of Urban Coup Cohousing
- Anthony Taylor: Policy Offer at the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals - the peak body and voice for Co-ops and Mutuals in Australia
- Michelle Mackenzie: CEO of Shelter WA - an independent peak body that advocates for social and affordable housing and ending homelessness
- Peter Shooter: Resident First Fremantle Housing Collective and Chair of Co-operation Housing
- With an impromptu appearance from Danielle Pender, Manager of the Community Housing Strategy at the State Department of Communities
It’s telling that here in Western Australia alone there are 9,000 homeless people and more than 14,000 on the social housing wait list. At the same time, so much of our housing is under-utilised and misdirected. For example, 82% of housing consists of 3 to 5 bedrooms, but 58% of WA homes house just 1 or 2 people.
So how much housing do we need? How do we direct that need most effectively? And where will the investment for this come from, especially given the problems with even impact and social investment expectations? (There was a bank representative present in the room for this conversation, and his involvement was open and instructive.)
The event also launched a series of five short videos on existing housing co-operatives, screened prior to the panel conversation. Film-makers Georgi Ivers and Jake Bamford worked with prominent West Australian artist and Co-operation Housing board member, Sohan Ariel Hayes (who credits being a coop housing resident with enabling his successful artistic life).
This episode of The RegenNarration is produced with thanks to Co-operation Housing. The event took place at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, and was made possible with support from the City of Fremantle.
Get more: On the event and panellists - https://www.regennarration.com/events/housing-coop-forum-2019
Co-operation Housing website (with the new videos on the home page and respective co-op housing community profiles) - http://co-operationhousing.org.au/
Reasons to be Cheerful article ‘Why Hospitals are Building Housing’ - https://reasonstobecheerful.world/why-hospitals-are-building-housing/
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Concluding music by Jeremiah Johnson
Title slide pic: supplied.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this podcast possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Alanna Shaikh is a global health systems expert. She delivered a TEDx talk barely 2 weeks ago which has been viewed almost seven million times already across its TED & YouTube sites. On the latter it is titled ‘Coronavirus is our future’. But as much as outlining why that is so, a legacy of the human-induced planetary degradation that has brought COVID-19 upon us, it’s about how we can create a different future.
How can we learn from the wake-up call of this outbreak, to create a more responsive and universal global health system? A system where, as Alanna puts it, equity is our social immune system. Bill Gates has written that such a health system will cost billions, and that’d be a bargain.
The same can be said for the broader systems restoration project, where ecosystem restoration is key, and related systems of food, agriculture, economics, education and media all play vital roles.
The coronavirus, and the future ones we’re currently headed for, are notably symptomatic of the same patterns underlying biodiversity loss, economic volatility and climate disruption. “Coronavirus is our climate crisis at high speed”, Alanna says.
So we’ve got a moment here, while doing our belated but inspired best to withstand our current crisis, where we can get at the roots of it all, and re-orient our societies towards a new and better normal.
Get more: Alanna’s blog – http://www.needsbrave.com/ Alanna’s consultancy - http://tomorrowglobal.com/ Coronavirus is our Future TEDx talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqw-9yMV0sI
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
With thanks to our friends at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance for bringing Alanna's TEDx talk to our attention.
Title slide pic: from TEDxSMU, by Kim Leeson.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this episode possible. If you too value this podcast, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com.
And get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Jo Chandler is an award-winning Australian journalist, author, editor, and educator. She’s become perhaps Australia’s best and most recognised climate journalist, also authoring the awarded book on the topic, Feeling the Heat. Her most recent Walkley Award, Australia’s highest honour in journalism, was for her ongoing freelance work. Jo’s grappled with media and climate disruption on the front line, and shares powerful thoughts on the stories that need to be told, and how we can continue to tell them.
Gutsy, moving and instructive, this is an insider’s view of a rapidly shifting media context, the great adventure story of climate science, and long-form freelance journalism as a means of reconnecting us with real news, and the people who make it. Is this art of story-telling still an effective way to contextualise, personalise and build trust – in science, the living world, and even each other? And if so, how do we best keep doing it?
Anthony met Jo for this conversation at the State Theatre Centre in Perth late last year, during the Quantum Words Festival.
Get more: Jo’s website - https://jochandler.com.au/ Quantum Words Festival Perth - https://qwp.writingwa.org/
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Concluding music by Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
With thanks to Quantum Words Festival, WritingWA, and the WA State Theatre Centre.
Title slide pic: Jo Chandler, sourced from her website.
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this episode possible. If you too value this podcast, please consider joining them, by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com.
And get in touch by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This special extra to episode 55 features Mike Salvaris continuing his Ministerial and cross-departmental presentation. We pick up with Mike as he moves from his authoritative global overview on the growing movement beyond GDP, to the nature and status of the proposal being made for a Western Australian Development Index.
A reminder that a wonderful e-book of this presentation was also published last week, so while you don’t need to, if you would like to follow the visuals as you listen, you’ll find the link to a free download of the book below.
Get more: Listen to the main episode 55, Will this State Lead the Way Beyond GDP? A Ministerial presentation by Mike Salvaris - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/055-wll-this-state-lead-the-way-beyond-gdp Australian National Development Index - http://www.andi.org.au/ The freely downloadable e-book of the presentation - https://issuu.com/melbourneuni/docs/andi_book_presentation
Title pic: West Australian coastline. Source: https://www.travelnation.co.uk/blog/our-top-10-reasons-to-visit-western-australia
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this episode possible. To learn more about The RegenNarration, and how you can support it, head to our website at www.regennarration.com.
Get in touch by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Mike Salvaris is a global leader in the development of measures that go beyond the gross inadequacies of Gross Domestic Product, to give us a better picture of our society’s wellbeing or genuine progress. That is, how we’re tracking against what we actually value most – like quality of life, trustworthy institutions, and the health of our families, communities and the rest of the living world.
Mike has advised governments, co-founded the OECD Global Progress Research Network, and is Director of the Australian National Development Index (ANDI). You might recall him from episode 48 last year, where he joined the live conversation in Perth with Dr Katherine Trebeck, the UK-based author central to the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance.
Mike was in town at the time for high level talks about the prospect of a pilot running of ANDI in Western Australia. A few months later, he was invited back to make the comprehensive case to Ministers and cross-departmental staff, with ANDI Ambassador and former Australian of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley.
What was presented that day was in many ways the collation of a life’s work – culminating in this prospect. You’ll hear the main part of the presentation here – a concise yet comprehensive overview of what the OECD has affirmed to be a growing global movement beyond GDP, and how ANDI offers Australia an opportunity to join in.
There’s also a special extra to this episode pertaining directly to the proposal being made for Western Australia, complete with next steps.
A wonderful e-book of this presentation was also published last week, so while you don’t need to, if you would like to follow the visuals as you listen, you’ll find the link to a free download of the book below.
With thanks to the Minister David Templeman, Director General Duncan Ord and especially to Jodie Holbrook, Liz Toohey, Yvette Peterson and Carol Hodgen at the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. Thanks also to Gareth Andersen & Janith Lokuge for valued assistance with the recording.
Title slide pic: cartoon by Australian National Living Treasure, Michael Leunig, with which Mike opens his presentation.
Get more: Listen to the special extra to episode 55 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/055-extra-west-australian-development-index Australian National Development Index - http://www.andi.org.au/ The freely downloadable e-book of the presentation - https://issuu.com/melbourneuni/docs/andi_book_presentation
Theme music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Thanks to our generous supporters for making this episode possible. To learn more about The RegenNarration, and how you can support it, head to our website at www.regennarration.com.
Get in touch by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
The summer here in Australia has been witnessed by people around the world, saddened and concerned as they’ve watched this country burn and be subsequently shrouded in heavy palls of smoke. This is a special introduction to the new year of The RegenNarration, in reference and reverence to all that has happened, and what it means from here.
More of us than ever now will be looking to continue to come together, in the wake of this trauma, to explore how we do transform towards regenerative ways of doing things that actually work.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast for making it possible.
To learn more about The RegenNarration, and how you can support it, head to our website at www.regennarration.com.
Title pic: Firefighters struggle against the strong wind in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales, December 31, 2019. Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty. Sourced from Insider.com - https://www.insider.com/australia-fires-burned-twice-land-area-as-2019-amazon-fires-2020-1
Music by Jeremiah Johnson.
Get in touch by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening.
We’re signing off for the year with an episode of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2019. With sincere thanks for tuning in, continuing to share and rate the podcast, and of course for donating and supporting its production. It couldn’t happen without you.
Thanks also for getting in touch throughout the year to share stories, questions and insights, and to tell us how much you’ve valued the podcast. It’s been great to see our listener numbers spike further this year, and even more fulfilling to hear how the stories are landing and what the podcast means to you. Thank you very much!
You’ll see the track list for our 2019 Soundtrack below. Have a wonderful festive season and we hope to join you again for a regenerative new year.
- Podcast Theme, featuring Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (& a range of guests from the podcast’s first year in 2017)
- Albert Wiggan (young Aboriginal leader from episode #034)
- Stephen Jenkinson (from #035)
- Mother Canoe, by Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins (Stephen’s choice)
- Michael Shuman (from #036)
- Nora Bateson (from #037)
- Damon Gameau (from #038 live at the premiere of the film ‘2040’) on Velvet’s Unicorn, by Bryony Marks on the ‘2040’ original motion picture soundtrack
- David McLean (from #039)
- Emma Lee (from #040)
- Douglas Rushkoff (from #041)
- Karen O’Brien (from #042)
- Darren Sharpe (from #043 live at the National Sustainable Living Festival)
- David Pollock (from #044 at Wooleen Station)
- Miriam Lyons, Ian Dunlop and Jan Owen AM (from #045 live at the National Sustainable Living Festival) on The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
- Kate Raworth (from #046)
- Economic Man vs Humanity a Puppet Rap Battle, a collaboration between Kate Raworth, puppet designer Emma Powel, and song-writer Simon Panrucker
- Amy (from #047 live at the Global Climate Strike)
- Katherine Trebeck (from #048 live at The Platform in Perth)
- Frank Fisher (tribute feature from #050 live at Swinburne University in Melbourne)
- Hazel Henderson (from #049 and #050)
- What If? (Impact: The Musical), by Jacqueline Emerson and co. (Hazel’s choice)
- Jake Claro (from #051) on Food, by Land of Milk and Honey
Due to licencing restrictions, most of our guests’ nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to our website https://www.regennarration.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
Title pic: Anthony introducing episode #048 live at The Platform in Perth. (Joni Sercombe)
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio any time - https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Jake Claro is the Director of the Vermont Farm to Plate Program, widely regarded as the most comprehensive state-wide food system plan in the United States, and the only one with full government engagement. It is approaching the end of its first decade, and gearing up for the next, with a growing global reputation.
The program takes a coordinated, long-term and collaborative approach with all parts of the food system - beyond a simple focus on agricultural output. Since 2010, and in the wake of the GFC, as so many communities and industries have struggled, the program has helped Vermont achieve enormous value – such as a rise in local food purchases of around 75%, 742 new businesses, over 6.5k new jobs in food-related industries, and a sharp reduction in the increasingly critical area of food insecurity. And that’s just the quantifiable stuff - all on the basis of improving the health of people and country.
Jake himself is a recipient of the Rachel Carson award at the Bard Centre for Environmental Policy, sits on a multitude of boards, and shares the story here of his instructive beginnings in this work.
This podcast bookends our year, in a way, exploring the rewriting of our economic source code via the transformation of local economies. The first conversation recorded this year was with Michael Shuman, one of the architects of the crowdfunding reforms that became the “JOBS Act,” signed into law by President Obama in April 2012. In this episode, we hear about one particular local economic success story that’s capturing international attention.
Jake will be a special guest at the Food for Thought Festival in Albany, Western Australia, between the 19th and 23rd of March 2020. For that and other possible dates around Australia, stay tuned to our partners supporting the production of this episode.
Episode #051 of The RegenNarration is produced with thanks to Community Food Events, the Food for Thought Festival, Sustain: the Australian Food Network, Commonland, and the Centre for Social Impact at UWA.
Title slide pic: Jake Claro, Farm to Plate Director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund provides an update on the next 10 years of Vermont Farm to Plate, at the recent annual gathering.
Get more: https://www.vtfarmtoplate.com - Vermont Farm to Plate Program https://www.vsjf.org - Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund https://www.foodforthoughtfestival.com - Food for Thought Festival
Music: Food, by Land of Milk & Honey.
Concluding tune by Jeremiah Johnson.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to episode 50 of The RegenNarration podcast! Which also commemorates the 76th anniversary of the birth of pioneering Australian systems thinker, and the man who introduced Anthony to the work of Hazel Henderson, the late Professor Frank Fisher. Fittingly then, this dual milestone episode features part 2 of Anthony’s conversation with Hazel.
Hazel and Anthony delve deeper here into 3 key systems – money, media & mind – including the growing momentum behind reclaiming media and the internet as ‘public square’, the powerful resurgence underway in public banking, and some brilliant and at times surprising ways we can think about opportunities for regeneration.
This special podcast with Hazel Henderson wandered across the personal and political, the heart felt and intellectual, the confronting and the thoroughly uplifting. More of Hazel’s story is interwoven throughout this conversation - how being a concerned mother led to her becoming an activist, later evolving into one of the world’s most respected figures in this space.
Title pic: Hazel Henderson (supplied).
Music: What If? (Impact: the Musical), by Jacqueline Emerson & co. – see the film clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oiWn1AXXk0
And for the free ebook version of The Purpose of Capital, by Jed Emerson, that the musical was inspired by - https://www.blendedvalue.org/the-purpose-of-capital
The acoustic tune accompanying this episode is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: Part 1 of the conversation with Hazel Henderson - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/049-changing-paradigms
Hazel’s website - http://hazelhenderson.com
Ethical Markets - http://www.ethicalmarkets.com
Note Ecor’s website, mentioned by Hazel, is now www.ecorusa.com
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Hazel Henderson is a legendary author, advisor and media producer. It’s very hard to overstate the influence Hazel has had, and continues to have, throughout nearly 60 years of public life.
She has written 10 books, including ‘Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age', been translated into 27 languages across hundreds of outlets globally, won a multitude of awards, is listed in the Who’s Who in the USA, the World, in Business and Finance, and in Science and Technology, is a member of the Club of Rome, has been named in the Post-Growth Institute’s (En)Rich List as a top 100 luminary inspiring global prosperity beyond financial wealth, and has been repeatedly honoured as one of the ‘Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behaviour’. We could go on!
Along the way, Hazel’s collaborated with a host of systems thinking pioneers, had defining experiences with the UN and other global agencies, been a pioneering advocate for equitable and sustainable human development, and an influential advisor on socially responsible business and investment.
In her 70s, she became founder and media producer at Ethical Markets Media, which is a certified B Corporation, producer of the “Transforming Finance” TV series, and publisher of the Green Transition Scoreboard.
E.F. Schumacher, the revered author of ‘Small is Beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered’, said Hazel’s writing has “more 'reality' than almost any other writings on societal problems I know.” Senator Edward Kennedy called her "a unique contemporary pioneer in the effort to humanize modern science and technology".
This special podcast with Hazel wandered across the personal and political, the heart felt and intellectual, the confronting and the thoroughly uplifting.
Title slide pic: Hazel Henderson pictured in 1964; supplied.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Concluding music by Jeremiah Johnson
Get more: Part 2 of the conversation with Hazel Henderson - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/050-reclaiming-money-media-mind
Hazel’s website - http://hazelhenderson.com
Ethical Markets website - http://www.ethicalmarkets.com
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Featuring UK-based Dr Katherine Trebeck, a central figure in the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance, and co-author of the new book ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown up economy’.
With special guests Mike Salvaris, director of the Australian National Development Index, and global leader in the development of wellbeing measures; and Carol Innes, local Whadjak Noongar Traditional Owner and co-chair of Reconciliation WA, successfully engaging in shifting economic development frameworks locally. All in conversation with Anthony James.
Recorded live in conversation with a full room at The Platform in Perth, a few days after the global climate strike and as the UN Climate Action Summit began. This event launched Katherine’s book, as part of a national tour around Australia in collaboration with the New Economy Network Australia.
While everyday economics has assumed all growth is good, the richest countries already have plenty of wealth and resources — they have ‘arrived’. The Economics of Arrival urges us to move from enlarging the economy to improving it, exploring the benefits this could bring for all, and how it can be done.
Importantly in this context, Aboriginal people in this country might well ask when they’ll have the opportunity to ‘arrive’. And with all we continue to learn about the sophistication of Aboriginal culture in Australia throughout millennia, what other narratives of ‘progress’ and development are available for us to share in?
Hot on the heels of the Wellbeing Budget in New Zealand, just the latest in a raft of key developments around the world, we explore how we change systems, stories and measures, to transition to an economy geared towards shared quality of life, rather than sheer quantity of stuff.
'The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown up economy' is the new book by Katherine Trebeck and Jeremy Williams, with a foreword by Kate Raworth (best-selling author of 'Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist).
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: Listen to the special extra to this episode, How To Make It Happen? (live Q&A)- https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/048-extra-how-to-make-it-happen
For a 25% discount on Katherine’s book, ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown-up economy’, enter the code ARRIVAL25 until 31 October 2019 on this website - https://nsbk.co/2Z6UlLg
Hear Katherine in conversation with Anthony on episode 29 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/029-launching-the-wellbeing-economy-alliance
Hear Mike with Tim Costello and Melissa Weinberg on redefining progress for episode 6 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/006-redefining-progress
Wellbeing Economy Alliance - https://wellbeingeconomy.org
Australian National Development Index (ANDI) - http://www.andi.org.au
Reconciliation WA - https://www.recwa.org.au
Title slide pic: Joni Sercombe.
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making this podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support.
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - https://www.regennarration.com/story.
Thanks for listening!
This special extra to episode #048 features Katherine Trebeck, Mike Salvaris & Carol Innes, in live conversation with a full room at The Platform in Perth last month, launching Katherine’s new book ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown up economy’.
We pick up the conversation on the topic of power, before opening up to a brilliant dialogue with the audience, and a series of resounding closing sentiments from each speaker. We explore the Wellbeing Economy Governments alliance, some extraordinary outcomes from the work Carol has been involved in, and a host of other positive developments around the world.
The questions are asked, how can a more widespread transition to wellbeing economies take place? To what extent are people just going ahead and doing it? What part might a universal basic income play? What about debt and money more broadly? And how do we go about democratic reinvention, both within our institutions, and in how we engage with each other in daily life?
Title slide pic: Anthony James.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: Listen to the main episode #048 Arriving at Wellbeing Economy - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/048-arriving-at-a-wellbeing-economy
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at https://www.regennarration.com/support
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to this special episode of The RegenNarration. The Global Climate Strike on the 20th of September saw upwards of four million people strike worldwide. A few hundred thousand of these were in Australia, including thousands of businesses and dozens of union groups, as adults were invited to join in and support the burgeoning student movement. It was all timed to lead in to the UN Climate Action Summit a few days later, where Greta and other young leaders also had a strong presence.
This episode is dedicated to taking a look at this significant moment in time, and to getting some sense of the dramatic difference being made. You’ll hear a spread of voices from around Australia and the world, including Greta, a host of other impressive young people and some of their guest speakers at the strike, through to UN Chief António Guterres on what came out of the subsequent Summit.
The film 2040 also screened at the Summit, so we’ll hear from award-winning director Damon Gameau about his impressions of the meet too. And while at the strike in Perth, Anthony spoke with a diverse range of adults around the margins of the march, asking what is moving them to step up, and how they are doing it.
So here’s a look at these few significant days, some of the extraordinary context leading to it all, and the systemic and cultural changes starting to gear up.
Music: Far Away Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.
The acoustic tune at the end of this episode is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Get more: On the global climate strike of 20 September - https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/post/biggest-climate-mobilisation-in-australia-s-history-as-300-000-students-workers-climatestrike?fbclid=IwAR06EAMf_q4C9ujT-1CGNtW5qmK5doSonLbsUQqqduw80YS6uKJpNJ9URZY
Greta Thunberg: the speeches that helped spark a climate movement, from The Guardian News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKTQW5i9_p8
Global climate strike: Millions take to the streets to save the world, from Channel 4 News - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXXAkt2492c
The Greta Thunberg HelpLine, from ABC's 7:30 Report - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yzAs1Vwbns
Alexandria Villaseñor, a 14 year old climate advocate: opening speech at the first meeting of UNICEF's Second Executive Board Regular Session - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWLCiXyptdM&list=PL4BF02A105C347439&index=14
David Attenborough tells world leaders at COP 24 that the 'Continuation of civilisation is in your hands', from The Guardian News 13.12.18 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Vh-g0oZ9w
UN Secretary General António Guterres, participating as a ‘keynote listener’ at the Youth Climate Summit - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVpXWmG0tc - followed by his close of the Climate Action Summit 2019 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1yiCiyK5Ro - all from the UN channel.
Title slide pic: the Perth climate strike, by Anthony James.
Thanks to our community of donors and partners for making the podcast possible. Please consider joining them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Kate Raworth’s internationally acclaimed idea of Doughnut Economics has been widely influential amongst sustainable development thinkers, progressive businesses and political activists, and she has presented it to audiences ranging from the UN General Assembly to the Occupy movement. The Guardian even named her as “one of the top ten tweeters on economic transformation”. And last Tuesday Kate tweeted pictures of the world’s first City Doughnut Day in Philadelphia, advising they are “plotting a tool so we can share it widely.”
Kate’s best-selling book ‘Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist’ continues to provide perhaps the most promising framework for achieving an economy fit for this century. Along with the simple yet profound visual symbol and metaphor for going about the change in how we think and organise ourselves. So to celebrate Doughnut Day, and on the back of where our last episode left off, it seemed like a good time to feature Kate on this podcast again. All the more in light of our live conversation event the day before Doughnut Day, launching Katherine Trebeck’s ‘Economics of Arrival’, for which Kate wrote the foreword.
With the extractive 20th century model of economy continuing to falter as it hits up against a range of limits, and the world moved once again by Greta’s presence at the UN’s Climate Action Summit and the largest climate strike the world has seen (so far), Kate’s powerful, holistic and achievable vision for our economy seems worth keeping front of mind.
It’s also a week out from the next National New Economy Network conference here in Perth, Australia, and it was at the 2nd of these national conferences where this 20-minute keynote address by Kate was given. It features Kate beaming in on the big screen with her customary power pack delivery, on how the economy has come to work the way it does, and how to reorient it towards what we need and want in an economy today. It’s followed by Q&A with the capacity audience of around 300 people at Brisbane’s South Bank, hosted by Network co-founder Dr Michelle Maloney.
So how are we to create an economy that, in Kate’s words, is ‘distributive and regenerative by design’? And how can we become less concerned about the growth of our economy, and more concerned about improving it?
Get more: Kate's website - https://www.kateraworth.com
Hear Kate in conversation with Anthony in episode 3 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/003-doughnut-economics
Kate and her team are in the process of setting-up the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) ‘in order to connect and empower those who want to turn the ideas of Doughnut Economics into transformative practice to create a world that thrives. If you’d like to get involved in some way please let us know by completing this form and we will be in contact when we are up and running!' - https://deal19.typeform.com/to/nZ8t0O
4th New Economy Network Australia conference in Perth, 4-7 October 2019 – as a podcast listener, use the code RPBP19 when registering to access the super early bird rate of $180 for the entire weekend program (see you there!) - https://www.beyondparadigms.io/
Music: Economic Man vs Humanity, a collaboration between Kate Raworth, puppet designer Emma Powel and song writer Simon Panrucker – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx13E8-zUtA
Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
And say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
This is a special extra to podcast 45 with Jan Owen, Ian Dunlop and Miriam Lyons. Here’s the rest of the powerful and vital conversation between our panellists and the capacity audience of 300 people at the 2016 National Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne, Australia.
Title slide pic: NASA, from the ABC website https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-02/gdp-flawed-and-out-of-date-why-still-use-it/9821402
Get more: Listen to the main episode – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/045-economic-growth-to-save-the-planet.
Thanks for listening!
Economic growth is stagnating, hitting up against a range of limits. Last week’s news that GDP growth in Australia is at its lowest since the GFC, with interest rates already at an unprecedented low of 1% (they are negative in many places around the world), emphasises what is increasingly apparent to people around the world – the old model isn’t working, and it’s not coming back. So what’s the future of the growth-based system, and how do we transition to a new model of work, business and economics, while avoiding collapse?
Around 300 people filled the Greenhouse in Melbourne, Australia, at the 2016 National Sustainable Living Festival, with a highly credentialed panel exploring these questions. While the conversation took place a few years ago, its relevance and importance only seem to heighten.
You’ll hear from:
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Jan Owen AM, CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians, the Inaugural Australian Financial Review/Westpac Woman of Influence 2012, and former director for the Australian National Development Index (ANDI).
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Miriam Lyons, a campaigns director for the prominent progressive advocacy network GetUp!, co-author of Governomics, and previously the founding CEO of the Centre for Policy Development.
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Ian Dunlop, formerly an international oil, gas and coal industry executive, chairman of the Australian Coal Association and CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is a director of Australia21 and a Member of the Club of Rome.
Each panellist speaks for 10 minutes, leading off with a little story on how they came to do what they do. Then we’re into another powerful Q&A with the capacity audience (featuring in a special extra to this podcast).
In the words of Ross Gittins, celebrated economics writer and Economics Editor at the Sydney Morning Herald: "The beginning of economic wisdom is to understand that the advanced economies – including ours – have stopped working the way they used to and won’t be returning to the old normal."
So what is the future of the growth-based economic system? Especially in the context of planetary limits, resource constraints, rising inequality, increased automation, increasing mental illness, and worsening extinction and climate crises. What’s an economy even for? And how can we recreate it for the better, and quickly?
Thanks to Chris Grose from Scout Films for this recording, and the team at the Understandascope who supported this event. The Understandascope builds on the legacy of the late Professor Frank Fisher. An interim website can be found at https://www.regennarration.com/understandascope.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more: Listen to the special extra - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/045-economic-growth-to-save-the-planet Ian Dunlop - https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/contributors Miriam Lyons - https://www.getup.org.au/media# Jan Owen AM - https://www.fya.org.au/author/jan-owen-am/
Title slide pic: as used by the National Sustainable Living Festival for this event.
Join us at our first live conversation event in Perth, on how we Arrive at Wellbeing Economy, Monday the 23rd of September at The Platform - www.regennarration.com/events/trebeck2019
Say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
This special extra to podcast 44 delves further into the back story to Wooleen Station and the rangelands, and those questions around meat production and consumption. From there David and Anthony talk about the at times extraordinary politics at play, why we the public are central to all this, and above all, what Major General Michael Jeffery, the former Governor-General of Australia, calls David’s master class and do-able plan.
Get more: Listen to the main episode with David – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/044-the-wooleen-way
Title slide: the Nationally Important Wooleen Lake. Pic: Anthony James.
Join us at our first live conversation event in Perth, on Monday the 23rd of September at The Platform - www.regennarration.com/events/trebeck2019
Say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
David Pollock is one of Australia’s most prominent regenerative pastoralists, and he’s now the author of a new book that’s been described as ‘The astonishing story of reviving the oldest land on Earth’. It’s called ‘The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource’.
Many Aussies will have seen David and his wife Frances on ABC TV’s Australian Story. They’ve appeared four times so far, such is the way their story has captivated the country. They’ve also been guests twice on this podcast. This time, though, is the first time in extended conversation with David, book in hand and on location at Wooleen Station.
‘The Wooleen Way’ is hard-hitting, expertly researched, and a great tale, with a compelling and holistic outlook. On the back of Charles Massy’s book ‘Call of the Reed Warbler’, this may just prove to be the next critical milestone in the shift towards a regenerative culture of caring for country, and the communities that comprise it.
Western Australia’s Minister for Regional Development, Alannah MacTiernan, has already visited Wooleen in the wake of the book, and distributed numerous copies among departmental staff. Which is all the more fitting, given pastoral leases operate on public land, and on so much of it (nearly half of WA alone). This is arguably our most vital renewable resource - the effective functioning of the vast majority of this country, and other regions like it. And we’re losing it. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
‘The Wooleen Way’ is, on the one hand, the story of David’s life and the remarkable regeneration happening at Wooleen Station. And it is about so much more than that. As David sees it, “If we can only get regeneration on Wooleen, then we’ll have failed.”
Join David as he shows Anthony around the Station to talk about the book, his story, and some of the how and why behind the regeneration of a country.
Get more: The new book ‘The Wooleen Way: Renewing an Australian Resource’ - https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-wooleen-way
Wooleen Station – https://wooleen.com.au
Listen to the special extra to podcast #044 with David - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/044-extra-with-david-pollock
Listen to Frances in conversation with Anthony on podcast #009 – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/009-regenerating-land-food-systems
And hear David and Frances in a panel conversation with Charles Massy on podcast #016 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/016-grassroots-revolution
The upcoming RegenWA conference, featuring Charles Massy, Terry McCosker and more, with Anthony as MC - https://www.regenwa.com/events/regenerative-agriculture-conference/
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
The outgoing music is by Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Title pic: Frances and David at Wooleen Station (supplied).
Join us at our first live conversation event in Perth, on Monday the 23rd of September at The Platform - www.regennarration.com/events/trebeck2019
Say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
The sharing economy is a phenomenon. But what is it exactly? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it “connects consumers to people who have products or services to sell, hire or lease via an online platform.” And “It includes services such as Airbnb and Uber.” But the folk at the heart of the sharing economy call that commerce – and in some cases, mere extensions of the current extractive economy that is driving us into multiple crises.
Last year Anthony hosted the launch of a brilliant new book produced by Shareable. Shareable is an award-winning, non-profit, global hub of news, action and connection for the sharing transformation. It calls this transformation “a movement of movements, emerging from the grassroots, to solve today’s biggest challenges”, from poverty to global warming – the challenges that old, top-down institutions are failing to address.
The book is called ‘Sharing Cities: Activating the Urban Commons’, a how-to guide showcasing over 100 sharing-related case studies and model policies from more than 80 cities. “From community composting to makerspaces, repair cafés and platform co-operatives, people are coming together in cities everywhere to develop solutions for the common good. They show that sharing can lead everyone to have more, together.”
Leading the conversation is the Australian editor of Shareable, Director of Social Surplus, and Research Fellow at the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, Darren Sharp, with a 10-minute keynote. Then we’re joined by special guests:
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Lizette Salmon, a pioneering figure in the Repair Café movement, founding coordinator of Albury-Wodonga’s popular Repair Café, and Coordinator of WATCH (Wodonga Albury Towards Climate Health).
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Dr Jose Ramos, co-founder of the Footscray Maker Lab, Director of Action Foresight, and fellow founding board member with Darren of the growing New Economy Network Australia.
Their 5-minute responses are followed by audience Q&A, all taking place at the 2018 National Sustainable Living Festival.
Incidentally, some of the endorsements from around the world for the book ‘Sharing Cities’ are recommended reading in themselves:
“Once again, Shareable shows how we can retrieve the very best features of urban life — consciously, constructively, and creatively.” - Douglas Rushkoff, author of “Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity” and host of the Team Human podcast (Douglas features on podcast #041)
Theme music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.
Get more: On Shareable and the book Sharing Cities, including how to purchase it or download a free PDF - https://www.shareable.net/sharing-cities/
On Darren Sharp and Social Surplus – http://www.socialsurplus.com.au
On Lizette Salmon and the Repair Café Albury Wodonga (with links to others) - http://ecoportal.net.au/groups/repair-cafe-albury-wodonga/?fbclid=IwAR1ymgkvgrbAU2TKdZKq0FOIjwLft-QZFWMyO975fM_HvK91BYGueqi9rTs
On Dr Jose Ramos and Action Foresight - https://actionforesight.net/ourteam/
On the National Sustainable Living Festival - http://www.slf.org.au
And the New Economy Network Australia – https://www.neweconomy.org.au
Oh, and the Apple proposal at Melbourne’s Federation Square has since been canned. The Victorian government is currently seeking public input on what happens next - https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/fed-square-s-yarra-building-could-still-be-torn-down-minister-says-20190802-p52d7s.html
Join us at our first live conversation event in Perth, on Monday the 23rd of September at The Platform - www.regennarration.com/events/trebeck2019
Say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
The first guest we ever had on this podcast, the former Wall St executive John Fullerton, made reference again this week to “John Elkington's product recall“ on a term he coined 25 years ago – ‘triple bottom line’. It reflects, he said, “the growing consensus that sustainability in business is not working. Instead, the chorus for systemic transformation is growing.” Our guest this week is Professor Karen O’Brien, and she has spent decades exploring and assisting people in just this.
Karen is an internationally recognised thought leader on climate change impacts and social transformation. She has been heavily involved in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC), and shared in its 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. She’s also on the scientific advisory board for Project Drawdown, and is the co-founder and partner in cCHANGE, an Oslo-based company that has become a beacon in the space of social transformation.
Karen’s work focuses on the relationships between personal, cultural, and systems transformations. She calls it exploring the most powerful solution to climate change – people! And she’s decidedly positive about it, pointing out that projections of the future too often exclude the understanding that people constitute the systems and stories we live by. We are the systems. And we have the ability to transform ourselves (read, not others) – deliberately, consciously, deeply. And in everyday life, wherever we are.
Karen wrote an article a few years ago titled ‘Is it time for a quantum leap?’, on the emerging field of quantum social theory. And she sees her work on the ground with cCHANGE and cCHALLENGE bearing out the potential for just that. So how does conscious social transformation happen? How do we engage the highest leverage points? How do we take care of each other in the process? And can this really enable us to achieve the 1.5 degree Paris Agreement target?
Theme music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: On Karen - https://www.sv.uio.no/iss/english/people/aca/karenob/index.html
cChange - www.cchange.no
Her new book, 'Climate & Society: Transforming the Future', with Robin Leichenko - https://www.climateandsocietytransformingthefuture.org/
And her upcoming webinar on 8 August 2019 - https://www.climateandsocietytransformingthefuture.org/resources-1
Join us at our first live conversation event in Perth, on Monday the 23rd of September at The Platform - https://www.regennarration.com/events/trebeck2019
Say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
Douglas Rushkoff has been recognised as one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT. Many of you will know him from the popular Team Human podcast, which has led to this award-winning, best-selling author writing the Team Human book. And frankly, it’s a masterpiece. Comprehensive, readable and vital, it’s a manifesto for reclaiming our humanity in the digital age. Walter Isaacson calls it “A provocative, exciting, and important rallying cry to reassert our human spirit of community and teamwork.”
Douglas rose to public prominence in the early 1990s as he helped to shape the internet. He wrote a series of books during that time examining the intersection of technology and popular culture, in which he coined terms like ‘viral media’, ‘digital natives’, ‘screenagers’ and ‘social currency’. But after two decades of documenting the hi-tech counterculture, Douglas began to realise the mess we were getting in. His 2009 book and documentary, Life Inc., told the story of an economic and social collapse 500 years in the making. Now he offers us the Team Human manifesto, powerfully framed as a call to a human Renaissance - restoring what we scarcely realise we’ve lost from the last one.
This, from the publisher’s blurb on the book: ‘Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of exploitation; education, conceived as way to elevate the working class, has become another assembly line; and the internet has further divided us into increasingly atomized and radicalized groups. If we are to resist and survive these destructive forces, we must recognize that being human is a team sport. If we can find the others who understand this fundamental truth and reassert our humanity—together—we can make the world a better place to be human.’
Douglas joins Anthony online from his office in New York, for this personal exchange on his time in the theatre, his moment of personal enlightenment, how it led to his work with technology and the net, and on to the broader contexts of business, the economy, religion, the value (or otherwise) of stories, psychedelics and podcasts(!) - and ultimately, of course, how to be human in this time when it’s all hands on deck.
Get more: On Douglas Rushkoff - https://rushkoff.com The Team Human podcast - https://teamhuman.fm And The Team Human book - https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393651690
Title slide pic thanks to the Team Human podcast.
With thanks to Bobbie Johnson for his 2009 piece in The Guardian on Douglas’ Life Inc. work, for some of the copy we’ve referenced here. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jun/16/douglas-rushkoff-life-inc)
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Say hello & send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
There are some extraordinary changes happening in Australia’s southern-most state. Dr Emma Lee has been at the heart of it – literally and figuratively. Emma is an Indigenous trawlwulwuy woman from tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania, and is a widely awarded scholar and community leader. The article Emma recently wrote for the ABC was titled, ‘We 'love-bombed' the Tasmanian government to win Indigenous rights.’
The list of changes achieved by Emma, her community and their government needs to be seen to be believed - from dual naming policies, to a whole of government strategy called Reset the Relationship, right through to constitutional change, and all achieved in just a few years, with a notionally conservative government in power, and in the state with perhaps the darkest history of Indigenous colonial experience.
This conversation is a fascinating exploration of how it all happened, and why family, kinship and a regional approach is central to it. With this in mind, Emma has salient things to say about the implications for reconciliation and Treaty processes, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and how to engage most meaningfully and successfully with Aboriginal communities. Well, perhaps any community.
Emma’s is a fascinating story. She was one of the first Indigenous archaeologists in this country, but she came on hard times and ended up working at a petrol station, where her life was transformed. She went on to a PhD and this story of broader transformation. And she’s now on her way to helping establish an Indigenous cultural fisheries and food market in Tasmania, with Tasmanian and Australian Government support, as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact.
News of Emma and what’s been happening in Tasmania lobbed into our orbit last week via our friends at Common Cause. It’s a growing story too, reminiscent of the approach taken in the recent successful ‘YES’ campaign for same-sex marriage in Australia, for example, powerfully transcending the adversarialism that underpins so much of our dominant cultural story.
Joining Anthony online from Bilbao in Spain to talk about it, here’s Dr Emma Lee.
Get more: On Dr Emma Lee - https://www.csi.edu.au/news/dr-emma-lee-appointed-swinburnes-2018-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-research-fellow/
And here - https://www.swinburne.edu.au/research/our-research/access-our-research/find-a-researcher-or-supervisor/researcher-profile/?id=ejlee
Emma's article in the ABC that led to this podcast, We 'love-bombed' the Tasmanian government to win Indigenous rights - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-13/winning-indigenous-aboriginal-rights-in-tasmania/11202128?pfmredir=sm&fbclid=IwAR2kpbR5j7g7uW_1ujotxSm653SCUR0A8U0aqKxQgG-A8iqzzpQj46OSXvQ
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Title slide pic: Rhiannon Shine, from the ABC article above.
Send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
Those who followed our travels last year will have heard a number of remarkable stories of pastoralists and farmers bringing land and people back to life. In some cases, their situations had become dire, and land turned to dust. Wherever we went, an organisation called RCS Australia came up in conversation. So we visited them late last year in Yeppoon, Queensland, and had the pleasure to meet legendary founder Terry McCosker and his team.
Charles Massy calls RCS one of the key training groups in Australia in regenerative agriculture and holistic grazing, including the business of it all, with “brilliant social learning programs and workshops, and a network of support.” When we visited, New Chair David McLean was there, and we got talking. After a number of fascinating conversations over several days, we subsequently resolved to meet up when he was next doing training in our neck of the woods.
David’s journey with RCS started as a client. He went on to become General Manager in 2012 and Chair in 2018. He is now a highly sought-after educator, consultant, facilitator and public speaker across Australia. Like Charles Massy, who we feature on podcasts 016 and 032, David’s got an invaluable over-arching view of what’s happening across Australia and the world in regenerative agriculture.
His insights are extensive and instructive, on changes in the movement, on country, in families and communities, in the businesses, in impact investing, in increasingly volatile climate and other forces of change, and importantly in how the thinking about the connections between all these things is developing.
When talking about such a holistic approach, and how it relates to life in cities as well, we arrive at themes of trust and connection. Why is trust so central to building the movement? What does success look like? What do we do about the potential co-opting of the term regenerative? Why is ‘going organic’ not enough? How can the most meaningful investments and impacts be made? How do we respond to at times diabolical drought, fire and flood? And how do we loosen the hold our cultural stories have on us, to stop riding the unicorn, as David puts it, and operate in a way that’s more aligned with the realities of how the living world works?
When in Perth recently, David dropped by Anthony’s place for this conversation.
Get more: RCS Australia’s website, including the bio’s of David and founder Terry McCosker - https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/the-rcs-story/our-people/
David’s recent blog post Stop Riding the Unicorn - https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/stop-riding-unicorn/ (including a link to the ABC story that might make David reconsider the unicorn metaphor).
Charles Massy in conversation for podcast 032 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-an-underground-insurgency
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Title slide: wheat growing in Moura, central Queensland. Pic: David McLean.
Send us your comments by text or audio - www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thanks for listening!
Damon Gameau has received multiple standing ovations around the world as he has accompanied the premiere screenings of his visionary documentary film ‘2040’. You might remember our first conversation on this podcast last year, as the film was being finished. This time we’re joined by a wonderfully engaged cinema audience, and special guest Julie Leslie, the impressive editor of Circular Style – a new magazine about sustainable, conscious, and circular fashion.
What resulted was a fascinating sense of how the film is landing with people - the questions raised and inspiration felt. And some additional stories that aren’t in the film, like the instructive story behind how the board game Monopoly used to be played, Damon’s visit to the Gross National Happiness centre in Bhutan, what regenerative fashion might look like, and what the growing movement behind 2040 is up to.
Anthony starts the conversation by asking the audience a bit about themselves. Only about half the people considered themselves very engaged with themes of sustainability or regeneration, but just about all were very concerned about the future - though interestingly, one person wasn’t concerned at all (you’ll hear him join the conversation in this episode).
Most tellingly, only a couple of people had ever thought about the sort of positive vision for the future outlined in the film. It emphasises the enormous value of this documentary. 2040, and these conversations, are envisioning new, more aspirational stories to live by, and exploring the changes we can make together that just might bring them about.
Anthony hosts Damon and Julie in conversation at the Perth premiere of 2040.
With thanks to Adriana Begovich from Anarchy PR.
Note: On Anthony’s mention of the book Empire of Things, Frank Trentmann reports one third of the items in the average British wardrobe is never worn.
Music: 'Velvet's Unicorn' and 'Future', by Bryony Marks off the 2040 Soundtrack.
Get more: The 2040 film website, including how to see it or screen it yourself, the book release, and how to get more involved - https://www.madmanfilms.com.au/2040film/
Circular Style Magazine (and Julie's Shopportunity Knocks tours) - https://www.circularstyle.com.au
Anthony & Damon in conversation last year for episode 30, on 2040 Vision: Climate change, fear & loathing - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/030-2040-vision
Send us your comments by text or audio - https://www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please consider supporting the podcast by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thank you!
Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator. She wrote, directed and produced the beautiful documentary, ‘An Ecology of Mind: A daughter’s portrait of Gregory Bateson’ - perhaps the world’s most renowned pioneer of systems thinking. And she has most recently developed the vital concept of ‘warm data’ – breathing life back into the deeply problematic phenomenon of ‘big data’.
In a recent conversation with Douglas Rushkoff on the Team Human podcast, Nora said we need to solve everything at once. Incremental change just doesn’t cut it. Anthony and Nora talk about this idea further here. What does systems thinking offer us with regards to changing our lives and institutions in such a transformative way? And how do we do it?
Nora has summed up her work by saying that she reframes ecology and society by playing with possible shifts in perception, embracing complexity and increasing tenderness. “Given that all of the situations that we need to face now are complex - climate change, culture change, economic volatility, all kinds of mental illness … - all of those things require an understanding of complexity to address.”
How does Nora’s work on ‘warm data’ address all this? How is it going down in the growing number of organisations inviting her presence? How do we live our daily lives with this in mind? And what does improvisation have to do with it?
Nora visited Australia for the first time earlier this year, and spoke with Anthony in Perth.
With thanks to Peter Le Breton and Daryl Taylor.
Music: Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: Nora blogs at https://norabateson.wordpress.com
Nora tweets at https://twitter.com/NoraBateson
The International Bateson Institute - https://batesoninstitute.org/nora-bateson/
The film ‘An Ecology of Mind: A daughter’s portrait of Gregory Bateson’ - http://www.anecologyofmind.com (watch it at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bateson/116614772)
You can send us your comments by text or audio via https://www.regennarration.com/story.
And thanks to our community of listeners and partners for making the hours of labour that go into each episode possible. Please join them by donating or becoming a podcast partner at www.regennarration.com/support.
Thank you!
Welcome to episode 36, the 2nd since becoming The RegenNarration. Michael Shuman is an economist, lawyer, author, entrepreneur, and globally recognised expert on community economics. He is also one of the architects of the crowdfunding reforms that became the “JOBS Act,” signed into law by President Obama in April 2012. Michael is re-writing the story of business and development, to one that makes much more sense if your interest is in creating more prosperous, equitable and regenerative societies.
It all revolves around local business. And moving away from the ‘protectionism’ inherent in the massive public subsidies that often prop up large transnational companies. A dollar spent in local business, Michael argues, compared to a dollar spent in non-local business, generates on average 2-4 times the income, jobs, and other positive knock on effects.
Observations like these, and the stories of communities and cities putting this into action, have only become more compelling since his 2006 book ‘The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition’.
Michael and Anthony talk here about some of his life’s work and observations – what’s changed, what still needs to change, and how do we go about that change? How do we get global finance to go to more of the right places, how do we grow where there really are no limits, and what is the sort of economy that can bring about what we’re really after in life?
Michael conducted a workshop at local Perth landmark, City Farm, in February. We caught up during the lunch break for this conversation.
Music: Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
And the acoustic tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: http://michaelhshuman.com - Michael’s website, which includes info on Michael’s most recent book, published by Chelsea Green – ‘Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity'.
With thanks to Gilbert and Village Well for having me along to City Farm for the day. For more on Village Well, and its Place School, visit http://www.villagewell.org.
And for the story of the first social enterprise in Australia to successfully engage the new equity crowd funding laws, raising more than $2m, tune in to episode #028 to hear Rob & Emma-Kate from Food Connect - https://soundcloud.com/regennarration/028-transforming-food-finance-society-with-food-connects-rob-pekin-emma-kate-rose.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. Please join them by donating or becoming a podcast partner via our new website https://www.regennarration.com/support.
Thank you, and thanks for listening!
Welcome to episode 35 of this podcast, the first since we changed name from Rescope Radio to The RegenNarration. We’re launching with this special conversation featuring Stephen Jenkinson, an internationally distinguished culture activist, teacher, ceremonialist, author and farmer. He’s currently touring with his new book 'Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble'.
Eldership is such a vital part of human life – of human cultures – and lost to our peril. It’s been a recurring theme on this podcast, since the very first episode with John Fullerton. 'Come of Age' is said to make the case that we must birth a new generation of elders, one poised and willing to be true stewards of the planet and its species.
Stephen shares a range of beautiful and powerfully eloquent insights here, on what this might mean for both the older folk among us, and the young. Where do we find wisdom, a joy that isn’t sought as distraction, and an embrace of limits as inherent to our humanness?
The conversation explores a number of particularly moving encounters in Stephen’s life, and what they taught him about such ‘humanness’, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence, death-defying potions, and anxiety and despair about the world and what we’re doing in it. It all culminates with an extended music production from the last time Stephen was in Australia.
Joining Anthony online from his farm in the Ottawa Valley, with the river ice thawing, here’s Stephen Jenkinson.
Music: Mother Canoe, by Stephen Jenkinson & Gregory Hoskins, from the Nights of Grief & Mystery album
The acoustic tune accompanying this episode is by Jeremiah Johnson
Get more: https://orphanwisdom.com/events/ - features more on Stephen, including the full range of upcoming events, starting Friday 26 April 2019 at The School of Life in Melbourne. A special week-long master class will be run from 6 May on North Stradbroke Island.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. Please join them by donating or becoming a podcast partner via our new website https://www.regennarration.com.
Thanks for listening.
Today we have a special announcement. The Rescope Radio podcast is about to sprout into an independent production called The RegenNarration. Over the last year in particular, the podcast has found an increasing number of you listening, supporting and corresponding about how much you’ve been appreciating the conversations. So we’re going to dedicate more time to the podcast this year, as it becomes an independent venture, and hope you’ll join us on the journey.
To do that, of course, simply subscribe to the podcast. If you’ve already subscribed, you’ll keep receiving episodes as you always have. Just with a new name and look. So why this name? Anthony introduces it here, along with a little background, in this brief announcement episode.
Stay tuned next week for episode #035, the first with the new name. And as ever, we’ll be a listener and worker supported endeavour. So please continue to donate where you can, and we’ll offer opportunities to become a patron or partner of the podcast too.
For now, thanks as always for your generous support, thoughtful messages and gracious listening. See you next week!
Feel the energy in the room with this special extra, as we hear Albert in a Q&A session after the West Australian premiere screening of ‘Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley’. The session was hosted by Narelda Jacobs, local Noongar woman and the first Aboriginal female newsreader to anchor a leading commercial station’s news service in Australia.
Albert talks further here about what the Kimberley means to him, how people can get involved in creating the dialogue he’s inviting, and how he feels about one of the most profoundly moving parts of the film. We hear from a number of elders featured in the film too, who’d also made their way to Perth to be in the audience for the premiere.
Cover photo: Bodhan Warchomij
Get more: Listen to the main episode 34, Undermined: Award-winning documentary from the Kimberley, with Aboriginal leader Albert Wiggan - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/034-undermined
You'll find a range of links in the show notes there too.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Listeners last year might remember our series produced on location in the spectacular Kimberley region of Western Australia. This year, the Kimberley is coming to us – through an award-winning documentary film that premiered nationwide in February. It’s called Undermined: Tales from the Kimberley.
Australia’s vast Kimberley region is under threat, with the ‘old industrial’ model of mining, pastoralism and irrigated agriculture driving an unprecedented land grab. The film investigates the politics of an area now forebodingly branded ‘the future economic powerhouse of Australia’, including what this means for the country’s First People and their unique cultural landscapes.
The world premiere sold out all screenings at the Melbourne International Film Festival in late 2018, and it’s been cleaning up awards at film festivals around the country since.
Young Aboriginal leader Albert Wiggan is a key protagonist and co-producer of the film. He’s also an Indigenous Ranger, sits on a number of boards including the Kimberley Land Council, and is a world class musician who has toured with the likes of John Butler. In this watershed moment, he sees opportunity for a ‘meaningful conversation’ about a future that is more fitting for the Kimberley, and beyond.
Anthony caught up with Albert just after he’d introduced the West Australian premiere to a full house in Perth.
Music: Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: Listen to the special Extra for this podcast, featuring Q&A with Albert after the premiere screening - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/034-extra-that-common-ground
On the film - http://underminedfilm.com
On Albert - http://underminedfilm.com/about
What to do? - http://underminedfilm.com/take-action
You can also listen to last year’s series on location in the Kimberley - episodes 021, 022 and 025.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
We’re signing off for the year with an episode of highlights from our wonderful array of guests throughout 2018. With sincere thanks for tuning in, continuing to share and rate the podcast, and of course for donating and supporting its production. It couldn’t happen without you.
Thanks also for getting in touch throughout the year to tell us how much you’ve valued the podcast, and what you’d like to hear in future. It’s been great to see our listener numbers spike this year, and even more fulfilling to hear how the stories are landing and what the podcast means to you. Thank you very much!
Have a wonderful festive season and we hope to join you again for a regenerative new year.
- 2018 Theme, featuring Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (& a range of guests from 2017)
- Paul Hawken (from podcast #013, accompanied by Gone Clear, from the album Modern Country by William Tyler)
- Frances Jones & David Pollock from Wooleen Station (from podcast #016, recorded live in Melbourne)
- Tim Winton (from podcast #017, with backing ocean sounds at Ningaloo Reef)
- Denise Fitch (from podcast #018)
- Evan Pensini (from podcast #019)
- Mary Crooks (from podcast #020)
- Dr Anne Poelina (from podcast #021)
- Song for the Mardoowarra, by Gwen Knox in collaboration with Anne Poelina, played by Mick Stevens, and sung by the Broome Primary School Choir
- Martin Pritchard (from podcast #022)
- Richard Heinberg (from podcast #023)
- Frank Fisher (from podcast #024)
- Chris Henggeler (from podcast #025)
- Jacqueline Henggeler (from podcast #025 Extra)
- Dr Mary Graham (from podcast #026)
- Moira Lanzarin (from podcast #027)
- Emma-Kate Rose (from podcast #028)
- Katherine Trebeck (from podcast #029)
- Damon Gameau (from podcast #030)
- Hugh Mackay (from podcast #031)
- Charles Massy (from podcast #032)
- Sounds of Severn Park (Charles’ farm)
- Back home by the Indian Ocean
Due to licencing restrictions, most of our guests' nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Title slide: Anthony producing episode 16 at Wooleen Station, by the Murchison River in Western Australia. Pic: Olivia Cheng.
Thanks for listening!
In this special extra, Charles Massy lends a little more context to his work, including an exploration of the roots of the industrial agriculture system and its effects on people, land and the rest of the living world. Within that, the conversation pays particular attention to some of the astounding new developments around the notorious glyphosate-based herbicide RoundUp.
It goes on to try to make more sense of why humankind has ended up where we are today, and of course how we can harness this understanding towards most effectively changing this dangerous trajectory.
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Get more: Listen to the main episode #032 (you'll find links to more info there too) – https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-an-underground-insurgency
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. And thanks for listening.
Charles Massy has become an extraordinary hub of knowledge, wisdom and stories of regeneration. Specifically, in regenerative agriculture, and alongside that, the art of human transformation. His latest book 'Call of the Reed Warbler’ continues to make an enormous impact in Australia, and Charles has just embarked on an overseas tour behind the release of an updated international edition. Paul Hawken appears on the inside sleeve, saying this about the book:
“Charles Massy has written a definitive masterpiece that takes its place along with the writings of Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Masanobu Fukuoka, Humberto Maturana, and Michael Pollan. No work has more brilliantly defined regenerative agriculture and the breadth of its restorative impact upon human health, biodiversity, climate, and ecological intelligence.”
Charles writes and talks about the growing repertory of stories of what are in some cases extraordinary tales of regeneration – including his own. He also takes a look behind that regeneration, at how change happens not just in the land, but in the landscape of our minds.
Charles and Anthony pulled up a pew at the farm, Severn Park, a few weeks ago, for this conversation.
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: Tune into our Special Extra with Charles, #032 Extra: Cultivating Regeneration from Industrial Wastelands - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-extra-cultivating-regeneration-from-industrial-wastelands
For more on Charles & Call of the Reed Warbler, see the original Australian edition - https://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/book.aspx/1445/Call%20of%20the%20Reed%20Warbler
And the updated Chelsea Green international edition - https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/call-of-the-reed-warbler/ Podcast 25 The New Megafauna, on Kachana Station (one of our most popular podcasts)
Podcast 16 Grassroots Revolution, with Charles alongside David & Frances from Wooleen Station at our feature forum back in February 2018
Podcast 14 on Drawdown, with Paul Hawken
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Hugh Mackay is Australia’s preeminent social researcher, and a prolific bestselling author. He has spent sixty years speaking with people in their homes and workplaces, reflecting back to us key insights about who we are – and why we are the way we are. So it’s fair to say he knows a thing or two about what we’re like, and by extension how we might best get ourselves through this time of significant transition.
Hugh’s latest book is Australia Reimagined. And while focused on this country, it very much deals with global patterns and concerns. He takes the growing global epidemic of anxiety and depression as the touchstone of what we’re doing to each other, and the rest of the living world. And in turn, the touchstone of what we need to and can change.
The publisher’s blurb on the book states that our ‘unprecedented run of economic growth has failed to deliver a more stable or harmonious society. Individualism is rampant. Income inequality is growing. Public education is under-resourced. The gender revolution is stalling. We no longer trust our major institutions or our political leaders. We are more socially fragmented, more anxious, more depressed, more overweight, more medicated, deeper in debt and increasingly addicted - whether to our digital devices, drugs, pornography or 'stuff'.’
But there is another story to tell, one that is responding to that trajectory, and that is powering Hugh’s optimism. It all starts in our streets, he says, and from there to the systems we live by, the stories we’re currently buying, and the ones we can create for ourselves. Hugh spoke with Anthony at his home in Canberra a few weeks ago.
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more on Hugh & his latest book: Australia Reimagined: Towards a More Compassionate, Less Anxious Society - https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781743534823/
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Paul Hawken describes Damon Gameau as an ‘extraordinary artist, visionary, storyteller, and craftsman of the future.’ Damon is the creator of That Sugar Film - the record-breaking, award-winning documentary that, through its extraordinary success, became That Sugar Movement. Damon’s now turned his attention to climate change, with his next film '2040' coming out next year. He met up with Anthony a few weeks ago just after 2040 had been completed.
2040 is described as an aspirational film about the possibility to make changes that will shift the course for future generations. It is a positive vision for the future, structured as an open letter to his young daughter, and again it is gearing up to be so much more than just a film.
As with ‘Sugar’, this was a very personal journey - as someone who himself was shutting down on news about climate change. And also like ‘Sugar’, Damon found the appetite for this film was enormous. The money was raised for 2040 in just days. And millions more was raised for the outreach program, in mere minutes.
Damon talks with Anthony about the film, how he’s found story-telling can reach people with these sorts of issues, and what that means for the possibility of positive change. He also talks about how his own life has changed, and what he’s learned in the process of creating these documentaries, and subsequently trying to keep up with the response.
Tellingly, in creating what was nominally to be a film about climate change, he found that emissions reductions are ‘just the bonus, the icing on the cake’. Through years of research and consultation with some of the leading figures and communities grappling with these issues, he found a much richer, promising and universal focus.
Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: 2040 the film - http://www.madmanproduction.com.au/releases/2040-2/ That Sugar Film & Movement - https://thatsugarmovement.com The Mai Wiru Sugar Challenge Foundation - http://www.maiwirufoundation.org
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Last month saw the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that triggered the GFC. It was a fitting occasion to launch a new global alliance on the streets of New York City - the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, poetically abbreviated to WEAll.
The Alliance has come about through a collaboration of some of the most influential and inspiring figures in this space. One of them is Dr Katherine Trebeck, the Alliance’s Research Director. She’s also an author, with her new book out next year, ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown-up economy’.
WEAll is set up to help bring about the transformation of the economic system, society and its institutions, so that we prioritise shared wellbeing on a healthy planet. How will it do that? How did it come about? Who’s involved so far, and how do more of us join in?
Katherine talks with Anthony about all this, along with some key developments like the new Wellbeing Economy Governments coalition being launched at the OECD’s Wellbeing Forum next month, and some of her instructive personal journey into the very heart of how we organise ourselves.
Get more: WEAll website - https://wellbeingeconomy.org
Katherine's new book, The Economics of Arrival - https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-economics-of-arrival
Our podcasts with ... Kate Raworth - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/003-doughnut-economics
Bob Costanza - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/007-ecological-economics
And John Fullerton - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/001-regenerative-economics
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Today we feature an Australian first, in an area that is developing fast globally, and potentially helping to redefine how money, business and the economy work. It’s called equity crowdfunding. It’s based on the crowdfunding model most of us are probably familiar with, though here it’s used to raise investment capital. The federal legislation for this is new in Australia, and Food Connect seeks to become the first social enterprise in this country – or as they would say, ‘systems enterprise’ - to successfully use the tool.
Food Connect is no ordinary enterprise. It’s really a phenomenon in Brisbane, that has germinated other developments in its mould all over the country. It began with the dramatic transformation of farmer Robert Pekin, and a model connecting farmer to eater more directly, fairly, and healthily, called Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA).
The business has since developed, with the help of his now wife Emma-Kate Rose, into so much more. And most pointedly, in their sights now, are the inter-related food, farming and economic systems, along with the cultural stories underpinning how we organise those systems. Now they aim to raise $2-4 million, to enable a transformative vision, beginning with the purchase of the premises they’ve been operating out of for a little over a decade.
This is the remarkable story of a dairy farmer gone broke and ‘mad’, as he puts it in all sincerity. And a chance meeting with a woman who ended up selling her house to invest in the enterprise, such was her belief in it, while dedicating her life to making it work.
So how does Food Connect and equity crowdfunding work? What would investing in Food Connect look like with this crowdfund model? And how does it change the systems and stories we live by, from ‘back-end’ food ‘rescue’ operations, to impact investing, to our broader economy and culture?
Join Rob and Emma-Kate as they chat with Anthony upstairs at the Food Connect warehouse.
Note: The crowdfunder was successful, raising over $2m.
Get more: Food Connect Shed equity crowdfunder, open till 10 November 2018 – https://www.pledgeme.com.au/investments/2-food-connect-shed-ltd#updates
Food Connect Foundation, including a series of events happening throughout the crowdfund - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au
The bio’s of Emma-Kate and Robert - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/board/
Food Connect enterprise - https://www.foodconnect.com.au
Music: Sounds of the forest
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
This unique region of Australia is famous for its ancient land and culture, luminous hot springs, and the best-selling book by Jeannie Gunn 'We of the Never Never'. It’s also developing renown for being an engine room for regenerating land, food and related systems.
Moira Lanzarin is a business woman, an artist, a mother, and a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement. She’s been central to the introduction of Holistic Management in the Northern Territory of Australia, as Director of the family station at Coodardie. And her awards tell the tale. They include the Centenary Medal for Services to Regional Australia, NT Young Cattleman award (and no, she doesn’t flinch at being recognised as a Cattleman), NT Rural Woman of the Year Runner Up, and NT Young Australian of the Year.
She has extensive board experience at a local, Territory and national level within industry and Government. From 2012 to 2016 she served as Director of Soils for Life - an Outcomes Australian Project under the Chairmanship of past Governor General, Michael Jefferies.
Moira is a clear leader, not just in pastoralism, but in the life of this country. Her insights are as relevant to city-dwellers, as they are to those living outside of them. On how healthy living as a family can be the backbone of regenerating country, why connection with country is so important, how the current nation-wide water contamination crisis should amplify concern about fracking proposals, and what else is most needed for us to create a regenerative society - particularly in the context of the pace, pressure and mindset of modern life.
Join Moira, and some of the other Coodardie locals, as she takes time out with Anthony on the powerful country she calls home.
Get more: Coodardie Station - https://www.coodardie.com.au
The disastrous water issue Moira mentions, a little north of Coodardie in Katherine, is now the subject of a town-wide class action with possible repercussions around the country - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-03/pfas-class-action-katherine-department-of-defence/10069196
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
The 2nd National New Economy conference in Australia began with a couple of extremely witty and profound keynote addresses. Together, Professor Ian Lowe and Aboriginal elder Dr Mary Graham craft a deft balance between gravity and levity, authority and guidance, and everyday language with a breadth of insight that genuinely captivates.
Ian is an Order of Australia medal winner, former President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and author of over 20 books. He talks of current trajectories and patterns, offering a broad take on what’s required and what has worked for social movements most effectively in the past.
Mary is a highly respected Aboriginal elder, Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland, and a consultant in Aboriginal community planning and development. She offers a sweeping perspective on ‘First Nations Economics’ and its relevance to our society today. And tellingly, both speakers converge on the moral aspect of achieving the new economy transition.
So what are the most important elements – the critical parametres - of the new economy? And how do we go about harnessing them towards making that new economy our reality?
Music: Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more: Professor Ian Lowe - https://theconversation.com/profiles/ian-lowe-189
Dr Mary Graham - https://polsis.uq.edu.au/profile/2235/mary-graham
New Economy Network Australia (NENA) website (including international links) - https://www.neweconomy.org.au
The Aboriginal map of Australia cited by Mary Graham - http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tribalmap/
You can also hear Dr Michelle Maloney in conversation with Anthony James on episode 004, Building the New Economy.
With thanks to Scotty Foster for the production of, & permission to use, the recordings of these keynotes.
And thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Due to the popularity of podcast 025, and the fact that we hated editing this part out of the main episode to begin with, here’s Chris talking with Anthony back at the homestead about the back-story to Kachana.
They explore Chris’s formative beginnings in Rhodesia, how the family came to acquire this disused part of the famed El Questro, and the personal changes that were needed for the great successes at Kachana to be realised.
And just in case the wind played too much havoc with our recording in the field, Chris and Anthony delved a little further here into some of the key issues from the main episode - the importance of having people on country, along with of course the new megafauna, how holistic grazing works with cattle (and donkeys) as today’s diprotodons, the value of the AWC and its conservation model, and what needs to change to help other pastoralists regenerate the land.
This is a special 2nd extra to the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series of podcasts. Listen to podcasts 021 and 022 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.
Get more: Kachana Station - www.kachana-station.com
Tune into the main episode 025 The New Megafauna, with Chris Henggeler - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/025-the-new-megafauna
And the 1st extra to this podcast Creating the Kachana Vision, with Jacqueline Henggeler - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/025-extra-creating-the-kachana-vision
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
The story of Kachana Station and its success is steeped in a family’s adventure. Jacqueline Henggeler is the Swiss paediatric nurse who joined Chris in the remote East Kimberley with their 3 children, to follow a vision for living together as a family on the land.
It has been rich, and challenging. From sleeping in the back of a ute in the early days, to home schooling, to facing down the deep trials of life, she has ultimately revelled in a path less travelled.
Jacqui’s insights on the broader project that Chris spearheaded, of regenerating the land, present a fascinating and moving outsider’s view of sorts. Including into how they’ve made it work as a family, financially and socially, how she has sustained a life many couldn’t, and ultimately how her work with the local indigenous folk has taught her the most important thing in life.
This is a special extra to the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series of podcasts. Listen to podcasts #021 and #022 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.
You'll hear the sounds of family in the background of this podcast. As with the main episode at Kachana, and consistent with the theme of this podcast, we wouldn’t dream of editing that out.
Get more: Kachana Station - www.kachana-station.com
Music: Stones and Bones, by Owls of the Swamp
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Can the new mega-fauna regenerate land and water systems, take away the need for systematic fire regimes and culling programs, and ultimately be the key to our future prosperity?
Kachana is a remote station in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia, accessible only by plane or foot. Chris Henggeler and his family have run it for over a generation now. From the early days sleeping in the back of a ute, they set about living a vision for a healthy family life on the land, while regenerating the grasses, forests and wetlands that had largely turned to dust.
A generation later, Chris is a leading figure in the development of holistic grazing in Australia. He runs cattle as ‘gardeners’, as a non-fossil fuel based means of regenerating land. Chris thinks of these animals as the new mega-fauna, the large herbivores we need to restore to the land – along with others too readily designated as ‘pests’ and culled, like the wild donkeys he’s integrated into his management plans.
George Monbiot has contested these methods in a high profile ‘debate’ with Allan Savory. But the successes at Kachana are marked - the creek that runs year-round now provides the homestead with its water, the forest now teems with life, and springs and birdlife return to the land.
Join Chris as he takes Anthony for a look around one of the most spectacular places in the world, that could also be one of the most important to our future prospects as a civilisation.
This is the 3rd and final part of our Kimberley series of podcasts. Listen to podcasts 021 and 022 for the 1st and 2nd instalments.
There is the occasional gust of wind in this recording as we walk around the property. We edited out what we could. As for the sounds of family in the background, consistent with the theme of this podcast, we wouldn’t dream of editing that out.
Get more: Kachana Station - https://www.kachana-station.com
Wild Donkey project - https://www.kachana-station.com/projects/wild-donkey-project/
Tune into two special extras to this episode. The first is a conversation with Jacqueline Henggeler on ‘Creating the Kachana Vision’ - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/025-extra-creating-the-kachana-vision
And the second features more on the fascinating back story of Kachana Station, with Chris - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/025-extra-2-the-kachana-back-story
You can also hear Charles Massy, mentioned in this podcast, on episode 16 Grassroots Revolution - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/016-grassroots-revolution - and in conversation with Anthony on episode 32 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/032-an-underground-insurgency
Music: 43, by Owls of the Swamp With the intro tune by Jeremiah Johnson
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
The late Professor Frank Fisher was a pioneering systems thinker and Australia’s Inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year. He died 6 years ago today. To celebrate his life and insight, we’ve delved into the archives and found this wonderful conversation Frank had with a man who has been described as a legend of science broadcasting, Robyn Williams.
This is no mild walk down memory lane. Their conversation, recorded in 2002, has almost uncanny relevance to so much of what’s happening in the world today. From the fraught terrain of energy transition and human perception, to the enticing prospect of ticketless public transport. And very personal questions of privacy in the context of integrated digital health records, and the broader phenomena of so-called ‘smart’ technologies.
During an adult life shaped largely by his experiences with chronic illness, Frank longed for the sort of digital health record being introduced in Australia and elsewhere, but had a very distinct vision in general for the use of these ‘smart technologies’. In essence, he preferred the ‘smarts’ be located in our minds, more than our machines. He shares various insights here, on how to do just that – regenerating, as he puts it, the wilderness within.
This interview of Frank Fisher by Robyn Williams was originally broadcast on The Science Show, ABC Radio National, on 3 October 2002.
Music: By Jeremiah Johnson
Get more: Tune into episode 005 Thinking & Living in Systems, in conversation with the late Professor Frank Fisher - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/005-thinking-living-in-systems
Robyn Williams’ ABC Radio National profile - http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/robyn-williams/2913842
Many thanks to Robyn Williams for his kind permission to podcast this conversation, and to our generous supporters for enabling us to produce it.
If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
The Economist reports that despite increasing public concern, and renewable power now costing less than coal in some places, rising energy demand means our use of fossil fuels is heading in the wrong direction. While climate calamities, once considered freakish, are now commonplace. All this emphasises the value and importance of this panel conversation.
Globally renowned energy expert, Richard Heinberg, joined us online from the USA, with one of Australia’s most incisive minds in energy systems and societal futures, Josh Floyd, energy and psychology researcher Dr Andrea Bunting, host Anthony James, and another full house of 200 people, to explore why the transition to renewable energy is essential, though not enough in itself to create a sustainable, fair & flourishing society. And what we need to do, individually and collectively, to create such a society.
Energy is a rapidly changing space, technologically, financially and in some ways politically, but the equally vital broader terrain of recalibrating society, our cultural norms, and how we think about and understand energy remains as important as ever. How much energy do we need? What happens to sectors like transport, agriculture and manufacturing? And what’s the best and most plausible proposal we’ve got for actually making the transition?
This event was the 3rd and final forum of the Regenerating Society Series, created by Anthony James in 2017. Recorded at the National Sustainable Living Festival in the heart of Melbourne. And introduced by Professor Brendan Gleeson, Director of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne, valued partner in the Regenerating Society Series.
Format: Anthony introduces the session, Richard speaks for 10 minutes, and Josh and Andrea for 5 minutes each. Then it’s an all-in conversation with the audience.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more: Tune into episode 006 Redefining Progress, the 2nd forum of the Regenerating Society Series, cited in this forum - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/006-redefining-progress
Our Renewable Future, by Richard Heinberg & David Fridley (freely available online) - http://ourrenewablefuture.org
Post-Carbon Institute - https://www.postcarbon.org
Richard’s award winning video, ‘300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w
Pic: The Economist - https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/08/02/the-world-is-losing-the-war-against-climate-change?cid1=cust/ednew/n/bl/n/2018/08/2n/owned/n/n/nwl/n/n/ap/140375/n
Thanks to all of our listeners and supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Martin Pritchard is Executive Director of Environs Kimberley (EK). He and his team were central to the successful campaign to prevent what could have been the largest LNG plant in the world, at James Price Point (Walmadan) just north of Broome.
It was a celebrated outcome around the country, but in many ways was just the tip of the iceberg of ‘old industry’ plans for the region. With 40,000+ fracking wells slated for the area, is the future to be an endless succession of ‘James Price Points’? Or are we headed for a watershed moment that sees a shift to a new, regenerative economy?
Martin sees the possibilities for the latter in numerous nascent industries, burgeoning Aboriginal enterprise, and a different way of looking at life, country and economy that the Kimberley and its inhabitants inspire. This unique region has massive swathes of country that haven’t experienced a single extinction since colonisation. In so many ways, what happens next here really matters.
So what’s the vision for the future? What’s working now? How are the various powerful – at times opposing - interests engaged? And what is needed to develop the next economy for this unique region and beyond?
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Get more: Environs Kimberley - https://www.environskimberley.org.au
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This week we present a very special podcast celebrating this year's NAIDOC Week in Australia.
Dr Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Traditional Custodian from the Mardoowarra, Lower Fitzroy River, in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. And if anywhere epitomizes the critical time we’re in, it’s in the spectacular cultural and natural landscapes of her homeland. Almost incredibly, there are 40,000+ fracking wells slated for this area, along with the damming of the Fitzroy River, and more ‘old-model’ industrial agriculture. Yet the next economy is also in tow here, and this is where Anne is currently focusing her extraordinary breadth of cross-cultural knowledge and experience.
Anne is an international award winner, Managing Director of Madjulla Incorporated, Councillor at the Australian Conservation Foundation, a qualified nurse, traditional midwife, has multiple postgraduate degrees, and over 30 years’ experience in Indigenous health, education, language and community development. Anthony caught up with her at her home in Broome recently, to talk about what the shape the next economy might take in the Kimberley and beyond, how we can make it happen, and the enormous opportunity in treaty, recognition and connection with Australia’s First Nations.
Music: Song for the Mardoowarra, by Gwen Knox with Anne Poelina, played by Mick Stevens, and sung by the Broome Primary School Choir
Pic: Magali McDuffie
Get more: Majala - http://majala.com.au/our-people/
NAIDOC Week 8-15 July, celebrating Indigenous women - https://www.naidoc.org.au
Environs Kimberley - https://www.environskimberley.org.au
New Economy Network Australia - https://www.neweconomy.org.au
Gwen Knox & Big Mama productions - http://www.gwenknox.com/bigmama/
The film clip of the Song for the Mardoowarra - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ZFG0mynnk (they will be touring this month in the Kimberley, and are available for bookings from early 2019)
Richard Flanagan at the National Press Club - http://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/national-press-club/2018-04-18/national-press-club:-richard-flanagan/9672524
Welcome to Country, a new travel guide to Indigenous Australia - https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/marcia-langton_s-welcome-to-country-by-marcia-langton/9781741175431
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
An audience of over 200 people joined former federal opposition leader Dr John Hewson, Executive Director of the Victorian Women’s Trust Mary Crooks, and Chloe Aldenhoven, Co-convenor of the Lock The Gate Alliance - which Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews recently called "the greatest political coalition we have seen in public policy for a very long time." Hosted by James Tonson.
The panel explores some of the ideas and spectacular success stories of communities coming together to regenerate our democracy, across generations, gender and geography. And yet how the potential still seems barely realised. So in the context of dramatically decaying trust in politics, and with multiple transitions to navigate, how do we turn this into a thriving democracy for the 21st century?
Pic source: National Sustainable Living Festival
Anthony's introduction was recorded in the grounds of the University of Notre Dame in Broome, Western Australia.
Get more: Victorian Women's Trust - https://www.vwt.org.au Purple Sage Project - https://www.vwt.org.au/projects/purple-sage/ Lock The Gate Alliance - https://www.lockthegate.org.au Dr John Hewson AM, ANU biography - crawford.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/john-hewson
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Evan Pensini is a pastoralist from the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, on Cheela Plains Station. He and his wife Robin are pulling off some remarkable regeneration of country there, significantly defying official expectations of just how far and fast this land could recover its health and productivity.
So how does the system work, particularly in Australia where hooved animals weren't part of its pre-colonial history? Why don't more pastoralists adopt these methods? What's the value of carbon farming? And is it really inevitable that mining will wipe out everything being achieved here?
Get more: Cheela Plains Station - https://www.cheelaplains.com.au
And listen to episode 16, Grassroots Revolution, with Charles Massy, and David & Frances from Wooleen Station - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/016-grassroots-revolution
Music: The Great Unwind, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, and have the capacity at this time, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Denise Fitch is a nurse, mum, marine scientist & unlikely leader of the Protect Ningaloo campaign – possibly the next big flashpoint in Australia, as we continue to grapple with transitioning from the dominant extractive, fossil fuel driven model of development, to the next ‘regenerative’ one.
Denise is Chair of the Cape Conservation Group – the local group at the heart of the Protect Ningaloo campaign. She sat under a tree by Exmouth Gulf with host Anthony James to talk about the meaning of place, the latest with the Protect Ningaloo campaign, the great opportunity in it, and what it means to the movement for change more broadly. Get more: Get involved in the campaign Protect Ningaloo - www.protectningaloo.org.au
And listen to episode 017 with Tim Winton - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/017-putting-it-all-on-the-line
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
This special podcast features one of Australia’s great writers, National Living Treasure, and reluctant activist, Tim Winton, direct from the World Heritage Listed Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.
Tim has again donated his prize money from a recent literature award to help launch a campaign to protect this area, called Protect Ningaloo. He has also been touring the country extensively with the publication of his brilliant new novel, The Shepherd’s Hut.
Along the way, he’s been talking a lot about manhood and masculinity, and the problem with our narrow – even toxic - view of it. This wide-ranging conversation with host Anthony James explores why that matters, along with fiction and the arts generally, and what it's all got to do with Ningaloo and the state of the world more broadly. Get more: Get involved in the campaign Protect Ningaloo - https://www.protectningaloo.org.au
The Shepherd’s Hut - https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-shepherds-hut-9780143786115
Breath, Simon Baker's film adaptation of another of Tim's award-winning novels (which premiered in Sydney the night before this conversation)- https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/03/exclusive-first-look-at-the-trailer-for-simon-bakers-film-adaptation-of-tim-wintons-breath
Music: The sounds of Ningaloo.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Over 250 people filled The Dome at the recent National Sustainable Living Festival for this feature forum hosted by Anthony James, with special guests Frances Jones & David Pollock from Wooleen Station, and regenerative farmer Charles Massy AO.
Frances Jones and David Pollock’s radical project to remove income-earning livestock from their historic property, in remote Western Australia, shocked their entire district, and has gone on to produce remarkable results.
Charles Massy's ground-breaking new book features a range of similar experiments. It is a comprehensive account of how a grassroots revolution is helping to turn climate change around, while building healthy people, communities and landscapes.
Get more: Charles Massy's Call of the Reed Warbler - https://www.uqp.com.au/books/call-of-the-reed-warbler
Wooleen Station - https://wooleen.com.au
And tune into podcast 9 for an in-depth conversation with Frances Jones at Wooleen Station - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/009-regenerating-land-food-systems
Many thanks to our sponsors for this event - Sustain: the Australian Food Network, the William Angliss Institute & the National Sustainable Living Festival.
Thanks also to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Following on from our 2-part series in conversation with Paul Hawken, here is his sold out keynote address and Q&A from the recent National Sustainable Living Festival. It's hard to overstate the significance of Project Drawdown. There hasn't previously been anything like it. So this keynote packed a real punch. It builds on a scathing critique of science communication, 'big agriculture', and the limitations of the Al Gore and Elon Musk phenomena, to present a comprehensive, holistic and uplifting outline of the 'top 100 solutions to reverse global warming' that feature in his new best-seller 'Drawdown'. Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more: Project Drawdown - www.drawdown.org
Paul's website - www.paulhawken.com
Tune into part 1 of Paul and Anthony's conversation - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/013-paul-hawken-in-conversation-part-1
And to this special little extra with Paul, A Reading on the Wilderness Within - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/013-extra-with-paul-hawken
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
This is part 2 of our special podcast series in conversation with Paul Hawken. This part is on Drawdown – 100 solutions to reverse global warming. This is Paul’s latest best-selling book, and the Project that’s taking off at an incredible rate around the world.
Anthony and Paul talk about some of the key patterns that emerged as the book was pulled together, various insights on framing, the new economy, inequality, consumerism and growth, and ultimately how we see ourselves in the world, and what makes for fulfilling, meaningful living.
We'll also podcast Paul's keynote from the National Sustainable Living Festival in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned!
Get more: Tune into part 1 of Paul and Anthony's conversation - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/013-paul-hawken-in-conversation-part-1
And to this special little extra with Paul, A Reading on the Wilderness Within - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/013-extra-with-paul-hawken
Project Drawdown - www.drawdown.org
Paul's website - www.paulhawken.com
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
And thanks for listening!
Welcome to this special extra to podcast 13 with Paul Hawken. In our conversation, he refers to almost wanting to read us a passage he once wrote. Afterwards, we kept recording while he gathered the book and read.
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episodes 13 and 14 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/013-paul-hawken-in-conversation-part-1
Music: Gone Clear, by William Tyler off his album Modern Country.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
To kick off 2018, we have a special 2-part podcast with Paul Hawken. Paul continues to influence heads of state, CEOs, activists & people from all walks right around the world. He was in Australia for a few weeks in February touring new best-seller 'Drawdown: The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming' & was kind enough to spend some time with us.
This resulted in a special opportunity to explore not just Drawdown (Part 2 of the podcast, out next week), but also his highly influential life & thinking more generally (Part 1, right here). We'll also podcast his keynote from the National Sustainable Living Festival.
Get more: Tune into a very special little extra with Paul, A Reading on the Wilderness Within - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/013-extra-with-paul-hawken
Project Drawdown - http://www.drawdown.org
Paul's website - http://www.paulhawken.com.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Gone Clear, by William Tyler off the album Modern Country
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening!
Here's a little something to spur your mood for change through the festive season - highlights from our soulful and eclectic mix of brilliant guests this year. We've put the lot together for our 12th and final podcast for 2017. You could think of it as our Regenerating Society Soundtrack. With thanks for tuning in this year, have a wonderful festive season and we look forward to joining you in many more inspiring transitions in 2018.
If you liked this podcast, please share it, and give us a rating or review. And be sure to subscribe to hear future programs.
You’ll see the 'track list' for our 2017 soundtrack below. Have a wonderful festive season and we hope to join you again for a regenerative new year.
- Introductory collation of guest quotes put to our podcast theme music - Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
- John Fullerton (from podcast #001)
- Trevor Meier (from #002)
- Kate Raworth (from #003)
- Michelle Maloney (from #004)
- Frank Fisher (from #005)
- Tim Costello (from #006)
- Bob Costanza (from #007)
- John Hewson (from #008)
- Frances Jones (from #009)
- Amanda Cahill (from #011)
- Ron Ipsen (from #011)
- The Hazelwood Song, by local musician & former Latrobe Valley mine-worker, Danny Boothman
Due to licencing restrictions, most of our guests' nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Thanks for listening!
This episode features one of the most compelling dialogues generated out of the Ecocity World Summit in Melbourne recently. A seven-person panel explored a number of powerful stories of transition across regional Victoria, Australia, with themes echoing experiences all over the country and the world.
Our seven panelists feature:
- Dr Nick Aberle, Environment Victoria’s Acting CEO at the time (starts at 2 mins 30);
- Wendy Farmer & Ron Ipsen, President & Vice-President of Voices of the Valley, an award-winning community advocacy group that formed during the catastrophic Hazelwood coal mine fire. The fire poisoned over 70,000 residents and contributed to 13 extra deaths across the Latrobe Valley (start at 10 mins);
- Harry & James Troedel, award-winning developers of a regenerative enterprise project, Seacombe West Regeneration Project, in a previously rich farming district that is so degraded it can no longer be farmed (the back story to this is also remarkable)(start at 23 mins 30);
- The prolific Sam Alexander from the University of Melbourne & the Simplicity Institute, whose recent documentary film about his eco-village project has attracted nearly a million views already (starts at 31 mins);
- And the highly respected Amanda Cahill from The Next Economy, with the sort of insider insight that only comes from trusted, long-term engagement with communities, business and authorities (starts at 38 mins)
- Hosted by Anthony James.
Each panelist spoke for 5 minutes each – well, they tried! - before an extensive dialogue with the full house of about 80 people, which itself included esteemed figures like the internationally renowned Professor Katherine Gibson, Dr Dominique Hess, Dan Musil from Earthworker Cooperative, and Josh Floyd at The Rescope Project.
This conversation is so very relevant to communities, business, governments, policy makers, researchers, facilitators and activists everywhere. And while the challenges may be extremely acute for communities often labelled ‘coal communities’ and the like right now, transition is underway, and it involves all of us, as you’ll hear.
We’ve been looking forward to bringing you this. It is a charged, informative and inspiring conversation – the sort we so very much need more of.
Music: The Hazelwood Song, by local musician & former Latrobe Valley mine-worker, Danny Boothman Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Get more at: Voices of the Valley - https://www.facebook.com/groups/VOTV1/
Seacombe West Regeneration Project - http://seacombewest.com.au
A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity – the documentary film co-written, directed and produced by Sam Alexander, now approaching 1 million views at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUwLAvfBCzw
Ecocity World Summit HQ - https://ecocitybuilders.org
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.
Next up is one of the most compelling dialogues generated out of the Ecocity World Summit in Melbourne recently. A seven-person panel explored powerful stories of transition across regional Victoria, Australia, with themes echoing experiences all over the country and the world. Here's a preview, featuring the voice of Ron Ipsen from Voices of the Valley, an award-winning advocacy group in the 'coal communities' of the Latrobe Valley.
Next up - we’ve had a few people ask to hear more about The Rescope Project. So we’ve turned the tables in our latest podcast. This time, we’re the guests - in conversation with radio show host, regenerative farmer & good food advocate, Cynthia Lim. Here's a preview.
We’ve had a few people ask to hear more about us, so today we’re turning the tables. This time, we’re the guests - in conversation with radio show host, regenerative farmer and good food advocate, Cynthia Lim, at Seymour FM.
Cynthia and her partner Nick have left the ‘rat race’ and set up a regenerative farm and stay operation together in Seymour - about 100 k’s north of Melbourne. When Cynthia got wind we were coming through her neck of the woods on our way to the New Economy Conference recently, she kindly asked us to drop in for a chat for her local Seymour FM radio show – The Food Exchange.
We talk about the new economy, experiences of living more meaningful lives with less, and just how a former corporate executive (Keith Badger), and a former corporate-backed scholar (Anthony), came to ‘see the light’ and join the movement for change to the systems in which we live.
As the afternoon shadows stretched across the hillside, Anthony and Keith headed into the studio at the Blue Tongue Berries farm in Seymour, for this chat with Cynthia Lim.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Production by Ben Moore.
If you valued this podcast, please share it, and give us a rating or review. And be sure to subscribe to hear future programs. You can also learn more about this podcast, and help to keep it going, at https://www.regennarration.com/support
Thanks for listening.
Get more: http://www.bluetongueberries.com.au - the farm’s website
http://www.exchangefood.org - Passionate community food group with a radio show, promoting local, ethical food. Their by-line? We don't buy food from strangers!
“Cattle, sheep, prosperity, first Australians, land on a knife edge, the politics of food and a struggle for future sustainability. An outback eco-tourism experiment that challenges a hundred years of European orthodoxy.”
That’s from the flyer at the remote Wooleen Station, where David Pollock and Frances Jones have radically destocked the land to regenerate it, after more than a century of degradation. Despite a moving story of nearly going broke, dealing with out-dated laws, and the politics around re-introducing a natural predator, they’re finding ways to continue their vital project, and producing some really incredible outcomes.
So it was great to visit them, learn more about what they’re up to, and what it means not just for them, but for the broader transition to sustainable, flourishing societies.
Joining Anthony for a chat in the garden of the beautiful Wooleen Homestead, here’s Station Co-Manager, Frances Jones.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
If you valued this podcast, please share it, and give us a rating or review. And be sure to subscribe to hear future programs.
Thanks for listening.
Get more: https://wooleen.com.au - Wooleen Station website
https://www.facebook.com/WooleenStation - Wooleen Station Facebook page, including recent posts on the Native Title determination, the remarkable return of kangaroo grass, and links to the Australian Story programs on Wooleen by ABC TV.
http://www.outbackwa.org.au/news_theaustralian_ag_report?utm_campaign=ag_report_13oct&utm_medium=email&utm_source=modernoutback - Article on the Auditor General’s report released this month – ‘Control of pastoral leases ‘bigger than Western Europe’ failing’
Note: John Forrest was the first premier of the state of Western Australia.
“Cattle, sheep, prosperity, first Australians, land on a knife edge, the politics of food and a struggle for future sustainability. An outback eco-tourism experiment that challenges a hundred years of European orthodoxy.”
That’s from the flyer at the remote Wooleen Station, where David Pollock and Frances Jones have radically destocked the land to regenerate it, after more than a century of degradation.
Despite a moving story of nearly going broke, dealing with out-dated laws, and the politics around re-introducing a natural predator, they’re finding ways to continue their vital project, and producing some incredible outcomes.
Pic: Nic Duncan Photographer
Today we’re featuring a conversation with one of the world’s most prominent political elders - former Australian Federal Liberal Party leader, and now Professorial Fellow at the Australian National University, John Hewson.
In recent years, John has become an increasingly admired figure across the political spectrum, as a powerful advocate for more leadership, transparency, responsible investment, and evidence-based policy. This is particularly in the context of the inter-related global challenges of climate change, a possible further financial crisis, and so-called ‘post-truth’ politics.
So it was a real pleasure to receive a call from John upon our arrival in Canberra, welcoming a conversation. It became an even greater pleasure as John’s level of candour, depth, insight, humour and care became more apparent.
Most Australians probably still recall John from his contesting of the 1993 federal election for the Prime Ministership. But he’s a bit like the life-long musician who had a few years in a famous pop band. The rest of his life has featured an extensive array of studies, achievements and experience, across a range of sectors and senior positions globally.
We talk about his frustrations and great concerns – the precariousness of our financial and ecological systems, the hollowness of money and economic growth for their own sake, and the difficultly current systems are having grappling with all this.
And we talk about his proposals for change, his experiences of dealing with vested interests, the great potential of the youth vote in particular, but also of a broad movement based on a greater sense of national purpose.
We also gain more of a sense of the deeply felt purpose driving John; a purpose that sees corporate responsibility as about culture rather than charity, acting beyond our own immediate interests for the good of the whole, and an openness to learn from each other.
Anthony's co-host for this conversation is former senior corporate executive, Keith Badger.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it, and give us a rating or review. And be sure to subscribe to hear future programs.
Thanks for listening.
Get more: Dr John Hewson AM, ANU biography - https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/john-hewson
For some more about John - https://theconversation.com/profiles/john-hewson-16192
Pic source: fambiz.org.au
Next up is a bloke who's become one of the world's most prominent political elders & an increasingly admired figure across the political spectrum, Dr John Hewson.
This in-depth & personal conversation features John's proposals for change, experiences of dealing with vested interests, the great potential of the youth vote in particular, and also of a broad movement based on a greater sense of purpose.
We've been on the road for a bit, speaking to people around the country on our way to and from the National New Economy Conference in Brisbane recently. We’re looking forward to sharing many of those conversations with you here, starting with this one.
Robert Costanza is one of the world's most accomplished and decorated systems thinkers & ‘ecological economists’. Having moved to Australia five years ago, he’s now a Professor and Vice Chancellor’s Chair at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy. So it was great to have an opportunity to meet Bob in person and hear some of his fascinating story, recent work, sense of hope, and what he thinks we still need to do to set ourselves towards a sustainable and desirable future.
Bob has an extraordinary back-story, list of credentials, and the company he has kept over the years reads like a who’s who of the systems thinking and ecological economics fields. This is a guy who has given his all to this work over several decades. And when Anthony spoke with the first guest on this podcast, former Wall Street executive John Fullerton, Bob was the first name he mentioned when talking about the work being done in Australia to regenerate the systems and stories we live by.
This is a powerfully concise explainer of where our economy and related systems and cultural narratives need to go – along with the why and how.
We spoke about public surveys that consistently affirm most people would prefer to live in sustainable and equitable societies, as well as genuine progress indicators that show the last ‘genuine progress’ in countries like Australia occurred decades ago.
We also talk about the Sustainable Development Goals, the need for more systems-based education, and to recreate language as we ultimately develop a more inter-connected and holistic worldview.
Putting on a fine cup of tea at his ANU office in Canberra, here’s Bob Costanza.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for helping to make this episode happen. And thanks for listening.
Get more: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/academic/robert-costanza - Bob’s detailed ANU profile with an extensive list of publications https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com - the hybrid peer-reviewed journal and popular magazine (think Nature meets the New Yorker). It is on the web, on news-stands, and in libraries. https://neweconomy.org.au - Bob was a keynote speaker at the 2nd National New Economy Conference in Brisbane recently (along with our guest on Rescope Radio Ep.3, best-selling author of ‘Doughnut Economics’, Kate Raworth).
Next up is Professor Robert Costanza, one of the world's most accomplished and decorated systems thinkers & ‘ecological economists’. Hear some of his fascinating story, recent work, sense of hope, and what he thinks we still need to do to set ourselves towards a sustainable and desirable future.
Today we’re featuring not one, but a number of special guests from a public conversation Anthony hosted earlier this year, on how we go about the much-needed tasks of redefining our notion of progress - and developing new ways to measure it. The panel was joined by a full house of around 300 people, together generating one of our most compelling public forums to date.
Tim Costello AO is Chief Advocate for World Vision and one of Australia’s most recognised voices on social justice, leadership and ethics. Dr Melissa Weinberg is a TEDx Speaker and well-known wellbeing researcher, who led the research for the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. And Mike Salvaris is co-founder of the OECD Global Progress Research Network, and a driving force behind the development of the Australian National Development Index.
It has long been recognised that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an inadequate measure of society’s success and development. Yet it and our focus on economic growth driven by wasteful consumerism persist, despite the range of crises they cause and the growing recognition that limitless consumption doesn’t make for healthy, meaningful human life.
This conversation explores how we can change these flawed narratives, systems and measures, to guide us to a sustainable economy geared towards quality of life, rather than quantity of stuff. Along the way, we learn (or re-learn) plenty about Australia, the world, deeper human nature, and each other. And the sort of probing questions, fascinating findings, and inspiring projects covered here, all offer great grist for the mill for those of us looking to reset our guiding stars of happiness, success and progress.
Is happiness the goal? Does it even work to try to increase our happiness? What makes for a meaningful life, and how do we institute that as the basis of our national accounts? What kind of leadership can we develop to this end? And how do we juggle the need to campaign on specific urgent issues, with the overarching need to address the common source of those issues? The ideas, stories and projects shared in this conversation offer plenty to guide and inspire.
We adopted a fairly snappy format for this forum. After brief introductions you’ll hear each speaker offer a 5-minute ‘fire-starter’. Then we launch into extensive dialogue with the audience.
With thanks to Professor John Wiseman and the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute for their support of this event.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
Get more: http://www.andi.org.au - Australian National Development Index
https://www.drmelweinberg.com - Dr Melissa Weinberg’s website
https://www.worldvision.com.au - World Vision
http://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au - Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) at the University of Melbourne
http://www.slf.org.au - National Sustainable Living Festival, where this forum took place in February 2017
https://neweconomy.org.au - the developing New Economy Network of Australia, to be formalised at the upcoming New Economy Conference in September, which will feature Mike Salvaris and Anthony James among many others (you can listen to the national convenor of the network, Dr Michelle Maloney, on Rescope Radio’s episode #004)
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going.
Get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
Thanks for listening!
Next up is a live panel discussion Anthony hosted earlier this year, on how we go about the much-needed tasks of redefining our notion of progress - and developing new ways to measure it.
Tim Costello is Chief Advocate for World Vision and one of Australia’s most recognised voices on social justice, leadership and ethics. Dr Melissa Weinberg is a TEDx Speaker and well-known wellbeing researcher, who led the research for the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. And Dr Mike Salvaris is co-founder of the OECD Global Progress Research Network, and a driving force behind the development of the Australian National Development Index.
The panel was joined by a full house of around 300 people, together generating one of our most compelling public forums to date.
The late Professor Frank Fisher was a pioneering systems thinker and Australia’s Inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year. A couple of months ago, Anthony received a copy of an interview with Frank that was originally broadcast on SBS Radio here in Australia back in 1999. Perhaps some of you heard it at the time. For those who didn't (which included Anthony, who was to meet Frank the following year), this was a great surprise – one we are keen to share in turn.
Captured in this short interview is a sense of what made Frank such a highly respected figure. There’s a sense of grounded humanity and possibility in how he talks, and how he lived. The title of his anthology, ‘Response Ability’, conveys this message succinctly - that the changes we need are within our reach. Regenerating systems and stories isn’t the domain of remote experts. It is the subject of everyday life, and ultimately who we want to become.
This is especially so given the ‘wicked’ nature of our major crises. “They’re called wicked problems”, Frank explains, “because anything that you do to try to mechanically ‘attack’ them produces a whole range of new problems”. Given these inevitable side-effects, “We have to look at other ways of doing things. And the primary way of dealing with these problems is to take the cause away [through social change].”
Frank was no technophobe, mind you. An electrical engineer who’d spent a decade in industry working in major energy projects, he went on to initiate what was Australia’s largest wind farm when completed, just a few years after this interview. But it’s the social context of this technology that counts most. And the way Frank describes how we can think differently, and more holistically, about the world and how we live in it, is thoroughly illuminating.
Svetimir Ristic, a graduate of the Masters program Frank led for a generation at Monash University, was the original producer of this interview for his Serbian radio program nearly 20 years ago. The quality of the recording and some of the particulars of what Frank talks about may have dated a little, but the general content and approach is as relevant as ever.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James. Original recording by Svetimir Ristic for SBS Serbian Radio in 1999.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for helping to make this happen. And thanks for listening.
Get more: On Frank and the Understandascope, a concept developed by Frank with National Living Treasure, Michael Leunig - https://www.regennarration.com/understandascope
Next up is the late Professor Frank Fisher, pioneering systems thinker and Australia’s Inaugural Environmental Educator of the Year. This interview gives a sense of what made Frank such a highly respected figure. There's a grounded humanity and possibility in how he talks, and how he lived. The title of his anthology, ‘Response Ability’, conveys this message succinctly - that the changes we need are within our reach.
Dr Michelle Maloney is the national convenor and co-founder of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, and the developing New Economy Network Australia. Both are strongly connected with fast-growing global movements, and a burgeoning mix of initiatives on the ground.
All this has inspired a rapidly growing convergence on the 2nd New Economy conference coming up in Brisbane in September, to formalise the network and its strategies for regenerating the systems and stories we live by. Hear Michelle talk about who's involved, what it's aiming to achieve, how you can get involved, and why it matters.
It’s no secret that there is mass disenchantment with our economic and governance systems. And there is an extraordinary range and number of people and organisations around the world working to harness this towards positive change. Michelle explains that Australia is no exception. “At its nub, what [we’re] talking about is shifting the underpinning structures that support industrial society away from destruction, and towards sustaining, nurturing and restoring life.”
Thousands of people and groups are working at the new economy in one form or another in Australia. But unlike a lot of other places around the world, there has been no over-arching means of connecting and developing the movement. There have been pockets of work on the new economy everywhere, but nothing to stitch them together. “We’ve got all the pockets, we’ve got pockets galore. And we want to grow that, and amplify that …. But at the macro level, the systems change … perhaps [that’s where] this network will have an opportunity to really break some new ground…. [To shift] not just pockets of activity in a local area but the systems that connect them.”
Michelle emphasises that this isn’t just for people working in this space already. This is for anyone who wants to be part of the network’s important work. And the music she chooses for us to end this podcast will leave you in no doubt that when she describes the upcoming conference as a ‘grass roots economics fiesta’, she means it!
In light of all this, it was great to have an opportunity to speak with Michelle about some of her personal journey, these networks she’s convening, and how they can help us rethink and regenerate our society’s systems, for the interdependent aims of good human living and a flourishing planet.
Joining Anthony online from her home in Brisbane, here's Michelle Maloney.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra 43, by Owls of the Swamp.
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for helping to make this happen. And thanks for listening.
Get more at: https://neweconomy.org.au - the developing website of the New Economy Network Australia (including how to register for the upcoming New Economy Conference in Brisbane 1-3 September 2017)
https://www.earthlaws.org.au - the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA)
https://www.earthlaws.org.au/?page_id=2854 - for more on Dr Michelle Maloney
Next up is Dr Michelle Maloney, national convenor of the New Economy Network Australia & the Australian Earth Laws Alliance. Hear about these fast-growing networks, the upcoming 'new economy fiesta' (aka the Building a New Economy for Australia Conference, 1-3 September), and the potential in all this for helping us transition to a just, sustainable & flourishing society.
Kate Raworth is one of the world's most brilliant and needed systems thinkers. Her new book 'Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist' is already a best-seller and has been described by George Monbiot as 'brilliant, thrilling and revolutionary'.
Tim Jackson, the author of Prosperity Without Growth, says it ‘reclaims economics from the dust of academia.’ Indeed, Kate initially walked away from economics due to the disconnect between how it was being taught, and today’s ‘real world’ concerns. This book is the synthesis of her work since she felt compelled to return to the field, having recognised it as the ‘mother tongue’ of modern society.
Her experience mirrors that of an increasing number of people in this regard, including myself. So it was great to have an opportunity to speak with her about how her doughnut – yes, of all things - can help us rethink and recreate our economic system for today’s world – to leave no one languishing in the hole, while keeping planetary boundaries safely intact.
This isn’t just for economists. It’s for all of us. It’s about how we live and organise ourselves – and ultimately how we get to the heart of creating the world we’d rather see. And Kate’s art is not just how to think about this stuff, it’s how to communicate it.
In literally re-drawing economics for the 21st century, Kate is asking us to engage with how people make sense of things, and by extension how we can make new sense of things. “I realised, when it comes to mindset, how powerful pictures are…. Far more than we give them credit for, they shape the way we think.”
All this gets to the heart of system change - shifting the mindset and the very goals of the system. Though in this case, we’re not so much charged with shifting goals as, tellingly, creating one – to go beyond growth and GDP as proxies for society’s progress, to tracking what’s actually important to us. “We have an economy that needs to grow, whether or not it makes us thrive. We need an economy that makes us thrive, whether or not it grows.”
So if the doughnut is the goal, how do we get there? Kate offers a kind of map, where the obstacles are undeniable, but not inherently insurmountable. And hearing about her interactions with mainstream institutions, and the many ways people of all walks can and are driving this change, feeds a sense of something significant happening here.
Kate joins Anthony online from her home in Oxford.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra 43, by Owls of the Swamp
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for helping to make this happen. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
And thanks for listening.
Get more at: https://www.kateraworth.com - Kate’s website (including how to buy her book)
https://www.rethinkeconomics.org - the movement that began with a global student revolt against how economics is being taught in universities
https://neweconomy.org.au - Kate will be speaking online at the 2nd New Economy Conference in Brisbane 1-3 September 2017
Here's a preview of our next guest, Kate Raworth. She is one of the world's most brilliant and needed systems thinkers. Her new book 'Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist' is already a best-seller and has been described by George Monbiot as 'brilliant, thrilling and revolutionary'.
Meet Trevor Meier, award-winning documentary film-maker, photographer, and story-teller. His latest film, ‘A New Economy’, has been a popular feature on the global festival circuit, including nationally in Australia as part of the Transitions Film Festival.
It’s a terrific documentary - much-needed, beautifully produced, and featuring a range of insightful people and projects to fire our imaginations, open our view of the world, and sure up our courage to experiment with new ways of doing things.
As Trevor explains, this isn’t a movie about the economic crisis we’re in – it’s about going beyond the crisis. It’s about what comes next, or perhaps better said, what is currently coming next.
Our first guest on this podcast, Capital Institute founder John Fullerton, features in the film. And like John, Trevor has observed hundreds of projects happening on the ground to build a new economy – they considered 600 for this film alone!
His observations of these projects, and of the influential people featured in the movie, are as insightful as his films. He reserves particular mention for John Fullerton, which echoes the reasons we were so pleased to launch the podcast with him. But it’s his comment on his biggest regret of the film that is just as important in this light, raising probing insights into the nature of diversity and power in this space.
He also talks tellingly about the sense of privilege he feels, and accompanying responsibility, to do what he does with his contribution to the world. And tellingly, again echoing John Fullerton, he talks of the liberating nature of living in this way, with this purpose, this sense of being alive, and connecting with the best of what makes us human – notwithstanding, or even because of, the challenges involved. “I don’t see it as a fight”, he says, “I see it as life, this process of creation.”
Music is central to ‘A New Economy’, and to Trevor’s background, and in many ways his choice of music to end the podcast, and how he describes what it means to him, says everything you need to know about him, and the potential of the new economy we might create together.
Speaking with Trevor affirms a sense of possibility in the world, one grounded in the reality we might not commonly see unfolding on daily media, but we can see it in his films, and hear it in this conversation. Trevor joins Anthony online from his home in Vancouver.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra Everything Always Moving, by AU4
Get more at: http://trevormeier.com - Trevor’s website http://www.aneweconomy.ca - the website of the film, A New Economy http://www.transitionsfilmfestival.com/event/a-new-economy-adelaide/ - A New Economy most recently opened the Adelaide Transitions Film Festival on Friday 19 May 2017.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James.
Many thanks to our generous supporters for helping to make this happen. And thanks for listening.
Welcome to our first episode, featuring an extensive, personal and inspiring conversation between host Anthony James and John Fullerton, the former Wall Street executive who became the founding President of The Capital Institute, a non-profit organisation working to change our 'broken' economic and financial systems.
John’s a former Managing Director of 'the old' JP Morgan, as he puts it, and now founding President of the Capital Institute, a non-profit organisation in the US dedicated to bringing about new, regenerative economic and financial systems.
Given these systems are fundamental to the civilisational crisis we find ourselves in, and therefore how we need to deal with it, this is vital work, and a revealing conversation.
John’s work draws deeply on systems thinking, a broad range of other contemporary and ancient schools of thought, and a range of ‘real world’ case studies, impact investing and other experiments on the ground. All this features in his extensive speaking and writing, including in his white paper, Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy.
It’s our great pleasure to introduce our first guest, John Fullerton.
Music: Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra 43, by Owls of the Swamp
Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon.
Production by Ben Moore & Anthony James. Pre-production with Mati Edwards.
Get more: Capital Institute - http://capitalinstitute.org
John's White Paper, 'Regenerative Capitalism: How universal principles and patterns will shape our new economy' - http://capitalinstitute.org/regenerative-capitalism/
The film 'A New Economy', featuring John Fullerton, opens the Adelaide Transitions Film Festival on Friday 19 May 2017 - http://www.transitionsfilmfestival.com/event/a-new-economy-adelaide/
Note: Bendigo Bank CEO, Mike Hirst, tells us the $40m John makes mention of in this podcast, that the bank has returned to communities, is actually $165m (at the time of this program), not including shareholder returns and the spend of branches on wages and so on.
Thanks to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going!
Get in touch any time by text or audio at www.regennarration.com/story
And thanks for listening.