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Titre
Date
Durée
179 Hilary Giovale - Becoming a Good Relative , ancestral alters & letting our tears fall
13 Apr 2025
00:55:58
“Those who have descended from the colonisers, we carry privilege but we also suffer the need to apologise”
Landscapes can etch into your very being & create a remembering. Making us feel whole & reminding us that we are just a thread in the complex web of the natural world. While somewhat insignificant your thread has a role to play as a relative to the threads it lies next too. The way we all interact with each other - both human and other than human, will be our making or our undoing.
Hilary Giovale, author of “becoming a good relative” is based in the ponderosa pine forests of Arizona, opposite a reservation & lives next to the sacred mountain of kinship which she now considers to be her most important teacher. This feels like an important conversation to have had - as two white women without indigenous heritage - it feels uncomfortable to have, and we will forever be learning, but Hilary (a 9th generation settler in the United States) begins the process of unpacking what it means to be in right relationship with the people & place that we each call home - pushing past the burden of white fragility to build pathways of robust healing & reconnection to our landscapes - to reconciliation with first peoples.
She shares what it means to create ancestral alters & how to connect with these elders who’s stories she tells us, are still unfolding.
She reminds us that while the work we have to do is exceptionally confronting, grief won’t kill us & that the time to heal in the bosom of natural landscapes is now.
"Elders are always identified by the community, never by the individual - they are usually unwilling but always shows up for the community, is wise, is generous, is funny, is humble, Our communities can guide us to where the elders are."
178 Dan Kittredge - Redefining Wealth From Cash to Culture
06 Apr 2025
01:03:48
“How we raise our children is facilitating a denaturing of our human-ness. The opportunity is to be centred within & rebuild our culture”
Dan Kittridge is the bare footed gent who coined the term Nutrient density off the back of his dao-ist strategy to create a life that afforded him the time & space to be at home with his young family, living simply with just 10k per year on the land.
Over the next 20 years he became clear that his role was simply to serve & that it's not his job to know what he's doing or attempt to implement a plan rather to be sensitive to what's shown to him & respond in a way that was lead by love enabling him to get out of his head, get out of the ‘shoulds’ & get into the heart, asking instead, what flows.
The result has been the creation of the bionutrient institute, a global speaking profile & a life long commitment to renaturing which he says sits at the centre of solving the poly-crises we face.
“Having the right to land to provide adequate housing & food for every family should be a foundational right. The land cannot be sold but you have access to it sufficient for a simple life.”
"As long as we engage with a colonised mind of separation/fear/division, we will not be able to engage with an indigenous mind of love/flow & unity"
“As long as the structure of our lives require us to work jobs for money that are separating us from nature, we are paddling upstream. It becomes difficult to tune into the flow of nature.”
“We are not the body we are carrying around we are effectively individual consciousness that has physical attributes. Accepting this changes the way we interact with each other.”
What is a soul - is it ecological? Or is it transcendent love?
Getting ourselves into right relationship requires a serious restructure of our way of being
Beginning to decolonise starts during early childhood
The money vs time equation
The rule of law is a paradox of control that can be equally exasperating & supportive
Understanding that there is a greater order & you don't have to control everything - you just have to be receptive to what is shown to you.
Using nature to model ourselves- symbiosis. Be your own brilliant unique system & then add mycelium to connect others brilliance
The role that feelings have in the way we make decisions
We dont need to KNOW anything - we are already wired with the knowledge we need
If we just work with nature - we will remember who we are and what we are supposed to do.
169 Tyson Yunkaporta - The real economy of mutual aid & LORE - Summer Days Throwbacks 2025
02 Feb 2025
00:59:16
Tyson Yunkaporta is an Apalech man who is an academic, researcher arts critic & father. He is also the author of Sand Talk, an extraordinary reading experience. Like many of Australia’s First Peoples, he has a complex identity and history but it's this that gives him authority to write and speak in a way which connects the wisdom of the past to the needs of the future.
The way he thinks demands a longer term perspective. He is both philosophical and practical, compassionate yet realistic. He is filled with an other-worldly understanding of humanity. In this conversation he urges us to consider the non linear complexity of the world.
He challenges our expectations, points out cultural shortcomings and invites us to recognise indigenous concepts and their history. Importantly he shows how these patterns have the potential to be incorporated into our non indigenous thinking which builds hope and possibility to benefit us all.
“I don’t have answers but I know that stories connect us to country. Country knows the answers. Notice it and be a custodian".
Episode Summary Minimising abstractions between lore and land The illusion of the environment which is hidden by siloed systems Let’s look like dickheads for a minute while we work out the path forward Looking for seasonal signs and responding to them Lore carries recipes for how to live our lives with story and pattern Coming back into rhythm with the natural world Running out of time - the time to reconnect with country is now The dominating authoritarianism in the western world demands people are disconnected from the landscape Mutual aid activism - not about throwing bombs but making sure everyone is fed. Self determination being thwarted by authoritarianism Stop looking at things and look at structures, systems and patterns instead Quietly getting on with it - syndicate your neighbourhood with the next neighbourhood The bullshit of nation building is key in the decimation of connection to country. Activism is an industry Positive and negative feedback loops to understand how symbioses interlock with others Story, ceremony and ritual for real thinking and real meaning making Until art became capital it was something that every human did every day to understand their place in the world How do we find a way of storytelling without reducing it to words "Image, dance, song - can all portray story but they have no depth of meaning if they don't have place" The lore is in the land "Leave those who are pecking over the carcass of the earth to their dying beliefs and the rest of us can get on with rebuilding relationships, stories, knowledge and place. Quietly and with people" Why we need to stop self flagellating acknowledgments of country and start building relationships
79 Beau Miles - a rather odd, story telling hermit who defines community when doing the dishes
24 Oct 2021
00:51:20
Our most downloaded backyard adventurer is chatting with us again but this time with better sound and more sleep under his belt so we are witness to a more true version of this humorous, odd character. A self titled 'polyjobist; a generalist at many things, he shares the challenge of writing a book after a decade in academia, worrying about breaking the law to make films and shares why he took up his granddads wood chopping axes despite his mediochre capability. Our conversation is all 'Miles' - it follows tangents, is really personal and stays true to his advice giving allergy.
Show Notes
Falling short on expectations and promises
Fear of being sued - breaking the law to film documentaries
Reframing your view of the world from your child-like baseline
“Bad River” - soon to be released film series
‘I don’t like being a negative storyteller but the time for me to have an opinion is here
I suppose I love attention but I’ve got hermit written all over me
A really quiet kid that began to bust out into his physicality which helped define him
Was he an undiagnosed dyslexic kid? Is that formative in creating who he is?
Learning maths by building things
Why he took up grandads ax’s to become a wood chopper
Being the mouth piece for those who you surround yourself with
Storytelling via various mediums: Film, book
Being Beau - thinking in tangents, following abstract thoughts, speaking in first person, finding your voice
My greatest skill in life is being a hard worker
Why recording his book as an audio book taught him where his writing faults are
Phenomonology - crating definition and essences out of subjectivity
The challenges of being a story teller
Our life is about defining our essences
While being attracted to individualism - life is simply just better when lived with others
Being watered down as an individual by becoming a parent
Why community is defined by doing the dishes
Reducing moving parts - from film making to doing dishes
Island foods - planning a trip with Paul West, Jade Miles and Beau Miles and three basic foods
Describing himself in three words: Hardy, Resilient, Odd
I think we are all odd but I'm just willing to say it
His allergy to advice giving
If a story teller is doing their job, there will be a million outcomes as others interpret the insights. This is desirable rather than a singular outcome
Living like tomorrow matters MUST look different for every single one of us -that's where the magic sits
Living life with an intentional unknowingness
As a film maker he doesn’t want to know what the outcomes will be, he wants a surprise and that raw, honest reality of one day at a time.
78 Tammi Jonas - hands-in-the dirt activist encouraging a de-growth model of farming
17 Oct 2021
01:02:32
Sharing her evolution from academic keyboard warrior to her current reality of being an agroecological pork and beef farmer who's pretty darned handy with the butchers knife and equally as sharp of mind in her contributions to the UN small scale farming policy initiatives.
Tammi Jonas is indeed a force of the natural world, never backwards in coming forwards but mellowing with every decade and sharing her successes and failures for the sake of thousands who are following in her footsteps towards a life of farming democracy.
Episode Summary
We dive right into how she fits it all in
Leadership - her style of leading from the front with doggedness and squared soldiers
Research and UN food systems mobilisation
Credibility that comes out of the dirt
Her commitment to food sovereignty across aaaalllllll the tiers of the movement
The brain breaking need to relate local practices to global policy
Linking good global initiatives to local practices
Applying food sovereignty thinking to general consumption issues
Taking power back one skill at a time
We can’t buy ourselves out of this mess - we literally need to joyfully work competently through the upskilling and sharing of
The illusion of choice when you see thousands of items for sale in a supermarket is not a place to genuinely begin
Why she considers herself an “agroecological” farmer (political, social, Agroecological theory of change is considered a science, social movement and practical - dedicated to circular bio economies rather than a purchasing of inputs. Agroecology rejects capitalism but values labour over yield.
‘Benefaction’ - enabling the farm to do their tasks joyfully
The rich reality of running internship programs - who are welcomed with the knowledge that they are becoming food sovereignty warriors
AFSA - first-peoples-first initiative
Solidarity - garnering unexplained wholeness but remembering we are all here for each other
Why there's value in building a new system rather than creating one from the ashes of the old one.
Why the rise and fall of farms and community orgs is part and parcel of the movement and should be encouraged
Being comfortable to share the successes AND the failures as a gift for the greater good
Building a de-growth mentality to avoid the ruthless capitalist system
Creating small scale farming businesses that are FUN rather than slaves to growth
Keeping her eye on the end game dilutes her need to be binary and rage filled
Why the States are not actually similar to the Australian culture - they are wedded to a growth mentality that we don't have so we have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
Why it’s ok to scale back from the initial vision
Framing ‘enough’ as being disentangled from the capitalist system - seeing the sky, feeding her community and others and being ok to go slow when needed.
77 Alice in Frames - Squeezing the bejesus out of life!
10 Oct 2021
00:53:05
You might remember this pocket rocket from Masterchef, perhaps you've heard her on the wireless, has she entertained you at a conference or was she the genius who convinced your kids to love their veggies via 'phenom-e-nom '.
Alice-in-frames loves life and doesn’t take herself too seriously but definitely has multi dimensional attributes. A poly-math who's mischevious pixie like-grin and twinkling eyes defy her hard working focus on reaching her singular goal of 'getting us all to love food - fresh food - especially kids.
Her self proclaimed super power is seeing everyone else's gold and connecting people to create an outcome of alchemy. If her best selling book 'In praise of Veg is anything to go by, this dynamo is on a ticket to success - What a gift to those in the kitchen...and the farm...and the classroom...and the family dinner table!
SUMMARY Her current lockdown project - writing a new book and launching tumami Eating more plants as a self care mechanism Recalibrate your resolution in Spring Teaching skills is in her wheelhouse - reconnecting kids to their food Harnessing pester power for good and allowing kids an agency to share Talking about food from a place of curiosity and open hearted kindness Seeing kids more like a garden than like a piece of wood - soft, evolving, in the moment Pandemic acceleration of people valuing food Creating food markets that are direct to consumer Going without other things to ensure food is her priority Food empowers people to connect in a sensual way Tumami is the everything spread - what actually is it though? 40 days of two ingredients Being a poly math because its fun and it adds value to her community Why she wears a lot of hats and a lot of frames Being a chameleon in the way she presents Four eyes and proud! Her self proclaimed myopic ambassador role Powered by people - plugged into a battery and flying high Her legacy vision - changing the way we speak about food to kids, getting them to love veg Why she can’t meditate but can lose hours potting broad beans Futureproofing the relationship that the next generation has with food Coming at projects from a place of hopefulness and seeking allies Food is the hook to engage kids early and teach them everything from there 'Phenomenom' - a free resource for everyone to engage kids in knowing their Enough is a feeling, its a spark, connection, growth, fulfilment, my family. She wants to finish every single day and feel like she's squeezed the bejesus out of it. Super power: seeing the super powers of others and connecting people. Contagious enthusiasm, she's been gifted a voice that people listen to and find comforting
Next season will kick off next Monday but in the meantime, we are satisfying your insatiable hunger with throwbacks to our fave episodes from season 1. Enjoy these wonderous humans and all their brilliance.
Before you ask, yes this is Charlie Showers of Black Barn Farm - Jade's other half.
Charlie is a fair food advocate, holistic orchardist, landscape scientist and insatiable reader, with an appetite for knowledge that sees him getting up before the birds to devour scientific papers, books and teachings, before putting it into practice at Black Barn Farm.
In this conversation, he shares decades of wisdom with his trademark patience, clarity and intellect. He covers the power of community and regional pride, a new way to frame our 'hypocrisy' in this time of transition, the reality of first generation farming and a sugar-free account of a 'working marriage' and unified vision. You'll get to hear Jade's answers too ;)
No hopium, all clarity in this complex interview that inspires action!
SHOW NOTES
Sitting with the contradiction inherent in your morals and lifestyle
Reconciling hypocrisy in your everyday existence
Being self aware without it becoming unbearable
His childhood role-modelling of ‘family statesmen’ who committed to the needs of their community equally with their own
Maintaining curiosity about our system, culture and economy to impart change
Why farming is the best place for him to share knowledge at a community level and make meaningful change
Why showing rather than telling is the most powerful way to inspire
Being exposed to those who have a different way of being, whirrs the thinking cogs
The importance of self time to recuperate and maintain balance when you’re an introvert
Why endless hope is not always helpful, and hopium is a recipe for ignorance
What a new future might look like
The raw reality of starting up a long-game farming enterprise
The potency of creating a dream together
Undertaking change journeys as a couple
Ideas to ‘blow your mind’
Living examples of how systems interact with and impact on each other
Awe of the Indigenous Australian cultural understanding of the complex web of the world
Making ‘complexity science’ more mainstream for the betterment of all
His evolution of changemaking from panicked urgency to slow and steady solutions
Why being more settled will make his children better change makers
Next season goes live Monday 11th October. Until then we've selected four of our faves to share with you again - they are just SOOOOO good, they're worth hearing again so enjoy having these wonderous humans back in your ears!
If you've never met a Perma Pixie, prepare to be delighted.
Taj, aka. The Perma Pixie, is bringing a little old school witchcraft and spades of permaculture wisdom to Melbourne - and now, to you.
This chick beats to a drum of ‘reciprocity’, a philosophy that acknowledges that we’re part of a cycle that should give as much as it takes.
She’s been delivering permaculture education courses for over a decade (not bad for a young sprout!) and has recently started clinical work as a qualified herbalist. Social patterns and interactions are her greatest love, equal to her fascination with plants and their healing capacity.
This conversation is a must for anyone interested in natural medicine, staying grounded in the fray, the freedoms - and struggles - of running a small business, how to balance impassioned action with self care, and how to be regenerative within a culture programmed to run us dry.
Her deeply felt connection to the seasons, and life steeped in reciprocity and relationship, will either resonate deeply or sow seeds in the garden of your mind.
Enjoy!
SHOW NOTES
How her early ADHD diagnosis encouraged her to seek calm in the natural world.
Taking a circular approach to living in reciprocity with nature.
The power of seasonal acknowledgement; combining the ‘doing’ with the ‘sensing’.
Having the courage to trust your instincts to follow the path of the heart.
Finding balance in the juxtaposition of being an anti-capitalist while running a small business.
Reframing financial stability.
How being an extrovert has enabled her to build a network of nourishers.
Ways to create nurturing community hubs and nodes, which in turn create valid community connection.
Why it's worth summoning the gumption to talk to total strangers and be open to spontaneous interactions.
The fundamental need to have a relationship with our own bodies to take ownership and responsibility of our most important asset - and avoid being a ‘baseline’ human.
Actively avoiding a sedentary body and mind.
Her permaculture and herbal medicine journey - and how it led her to the plants which nourish her.
Why a world filled with sharing is better than a life lived alone.
How she calms the voice urging her to "do more".
Finding balance as a one-woman show when her greatest desire is to be outside - not behind a screen.
Why to do a "needs analysis": What are your needs and what can you offer?
Why relationships are what fundamentally give her hope.
We hear Dan’s thoughts on consciously shaping a vibrant and beautiful life, getting paid for your passion, how to be vulnerable and cut to the chase (rather than participating in superficial BS), the deception of ideas, the illusion of separation from the natural world and why to ask better questions.
SHOW NOTES
Away from reductionist thinking and towards a holistic framework.
Discovering holistic management and the influence of Allan Savory.
How to uncover the deeper intention beneath the goal or dream.
What are the core ingredients of a fulfilling life?
How linear thinking sustains our industrialised society.
Why you can’t just ‘join your life back up’ to create a whole - you need to go right back to the DNA of your values and beliefs.
How to tap into deep harmony and coherence.
Why life can’t be like a knitted jumper.
“Deciding your way” towards the life you want.
Why self work isn’t selfish - it’s a precursor to genuine altruism.
Honouring the need for financial security in a world that hinges on money.
An uncompromising approach to making profit from your passion.
Having hard conversations vs. modern ‘communities’ that stroke our egos.
Why Dan’s excited to be alive at this time in history.
Sending positive ripples into space and time.
The gnarly question of how to instil hope, buoyancy and knowledge in your kids.
Approaching each day as a living whole.
Our obligation to contribute to the beauty of the universe.
How we’ve been hijacked by the idea that the world is a machine.
How to lead with feeling and back up with thinking.
“The intellect is too crude a net to catch the whole” - Christopher Alexander
Why we don’t need to “reconnect” with nature - we have never been separate.
How to relax back into underlying non-separateness.
Understanding “life sheds” rather than arbitrary borders.
So we don't leave you twiddling your braincells while we record the next season, we've done you the favour of going waaaaaaaay back into the archives of season one and dusting off four our our faves for you to stick in your ears for your weekly dose of inspiration. Next season kicks off on Monday 11th October - until then, enjoy these humans of wonder!
ARCHIVE 1 of 4 If you’re looking for reasons to be hopeful, this conversation with Brenna Quinlan provides a lifetime’s worth.
You probably know her as “that permaculture illustrator” - and boy, can she communicate complex environmental and social ideas with a few deft flicks of her paintbrush!
Although she now lives in WA with her permie partner in crime Charlie McGee, at the time we chatted with Brenna she was a tiny-hut-dwelling resident of Melliodora and she shares what life looks like day in day out when living with the co founder of permaculture.
Brenna is a breath of fresh air and optimism, with oodles to share about where humanity’s headed - and how we can make the transition altogether more joyful.
Listen in. Smile big. Draw a (hopeful) picture.
SHOW NOTES
Brenna’s early love of art and “crashing” adult art classes.
Her story of riding across the Americans in her early 20s, learning about farming and community.
How she was “the right sized piece of the puzzle” when she fell into illustrating Retrosuburbia... and making creativity her career.
Why she didn't stress about "using her uni degrees" and instead let creativity and opportunities germinate where they may.
How and why to be part of a greater movement, rather than going it alone.
The importance of surrounding yourself with like-minded people.
Her simple daily rituals and joyful pleasures featuring: goats, uphill bike rides, library books.
Why cycles of day and night, the seasons and and end-of-day gratitude practice are essential parts of her existence.
Why ‘alternative living’ is an opportunity to connect more with others, rather than persisting with unfettered individualism (the death of community?).
How her life at Mellidora works: rent for work exchange, living alongside others, zero waste, a permie bubble.
Why taking a leap of faith into a different life = nothing to lose.
How she channels her environmental grief into positive forward motion.
How to find what makes you come alive - and go for it!
72 Paul West of River Cottage fame...it all began the first time he really tasted an apple at 20.
19 Sep 2021
00:57:54
Strap in for a fast paced chat with this natural born story teller. From the heady heights of top restaurants, starring in his own reality tv program and radio shows to his definition of “enough” - which begins with rude health and healthy kids before settling with sovereignty of time and community belonging.
As practical and grounded as he is charismatic with a touch of aussie larrikin, ‘Westy’ is whip cracking fast making it easy to listen and laugh at his tales - like serving uncooked rice as his first attempt at cooking.
This high energy human wraps up the season for us with insights and stories that are endearing and inspiring in equal measure.
Episode notes
Choosing your island foods
Are you an eater or a foodie ?- Westie grew up as an eater until he was 17 before becoming a foodie
Embalmed cats above the fresh food aisles at the local supermarket
Moving from his first out-of-home cooked meal: Raw rice, frozen peas, ham and soy sauce to cheffing in lofty places
His first wwoofing experience that sowed the seeds for his ‘NOW’ life:
Witnessing the loftiest ideal for human life as life on the land growing food, connecting to community, physical work
His winding but whip fast hospitality adventure
Using the age good food guide as a way to get a job and crash landing into Vu De Monde to cut his teeth
Turning his back on fine dining cuisine to return to the roots of growing food.
A yearning desire to really understand the rhythms of food
How fatherhood changed him, from self to selfless. Why he never wanted to be a ‘phone in’ dad
Reframing his expectations of fatherhood for him, his kids and his wife.
Creating patterns to set up our kids for the rest of their lives and using food as the central guide for this
The virtues of tapping into the primal human nature.
Transitioning from kitchen to farm grew his understanding of long standing ecological needs.
River Cottage - the inside scoop on the steep learning curves and truth behind producing a reality TV program. The juggle of actually living a 365 day farm life but needing to fit in the production of a stage production alongside.
The hard work of farming! Far from white clothed lunches under a tree
The repetition needed for growing
Now living a life that's the amalgamation of his previous lives
Creating a life of belonging in a village across generations
The perfect combo of small-house big block.
Building ritual around food markers, what the gardens providing, when the crayfish and oysters are harvesting,
Making an effort to observe the natural spectacles and building ritual around it
71 Bec Shann - The complexities of simple living + the boring truth about meditation
12 Sep 2021
00:51:46
Bec Shann (who you might know from Think Big Live Simply) used to lead a pretty conventional life working in science, making rational decisions, and following the prescribed path towards success.
But then she saw an ad for Milkwood Permaculture's Design Course -- and the rest, as they say, is compost.
From taking on a commercial-scale market garden with no prior experience, to building a humble abode on the side of a hill and steeping herself in the home economy, Bec’s thoughtful and honest approach to simple living will have you breathing a sigh of relief. Because it's imperfect by design -- and starts the minute you articulate your values.
SHOW NOTES
The boring truth about meditation.
Discovering permaculture by accident through an ad.
The gifts of redundancy!
Rational vs. corporeal decision-making
Taking an adult gap year
How to know when you should completely change your life?
Taking on a market garden with zero experience
Work/life balance -- simple living style.
The positive feedback loop of a frugal home economy.
Work to live or working to outsource the living?
There is no magical ‘anti-consumer’ switch.
If we can create more space between the system and the marketing and rushing we can tap back into knowing we have enough.
Dealing with part-time work guilt
A bee works its entire life for your sweet cuppa tea!
Community isn’t an easy and instantaneous thing.
Intentional Instagram usage.
The first step in simple living = articulating your values.
Emily Ehlers describes herself as an illustrator, writer, environmentalist + very bad dancer.
We know her as the lass whose witty and poignant pieces combine art and activism in the greatest possible way.
Today Em speaks with Jade about writing a book about hope as a self-proclaimed anxious person, humour as a tool for resilience, mental health truths, value stacking and all kinds of good stuff that’ll, with any luck, lift you in this time of uncertainty.
Em has a new book out called Hope Is A Verb, so be sure to check it out if you like what you hear!
SHOW NOTES
Writing a book about hope as an anxious person
Finding reassurance in the doing
Becoming a lighthouse that attracts like minded people
Being aware of confirmation bias; actively being open to those you disagree with
Using family to trial how you manage differing opinions
Seeking to understand and then be understood
Being more radical than the angle you present publicly for the sake of shifting the needle
Providing tools that allow people to ‘enter the arena’
Humour as a tool for resilience
Fuelling our psyche with hope
Hope isn't a stagnant thing, what it needs to be is ‘active hope’
Having self compassion and understanding that we're human
The things that make us most human are also the things which make us our most magnificent
Going off antidepressants in order to write a book about hope and feeling the feelings
Getting kids to know their values and to live within them
Giving kids more credit than we do
Value stacking
Being aware of your marinade
Inoculating yourself against regret
Learning to unlearn takes balls, gumption and desire
Acknowledging that we are in the system that dominates us and we just need to do our best with what we have
Gently shifting narrative so that people want to join you not run from you
Rebuilding culture
Thinking of self like a veggie patch: seasonal, phased, nurtured from the ground up
Just start. Pick a thing. Stop over analysing and just do.
168 Becoming Creatures Of The Planet w Indira Naidoo - Summer Days Throwbacks 2025
26 Jan 2025
00:46:34
Following the shocking & heartbreaking death of her younger sister Indira leant into grief with the help of the natural world. She formed a deep friendship with a tree, learnt the power of self trust & became conscious of death in a way that led her to see puddles as portals into another world. Despite the genesis, this conversation is joyful & powerful.
Show Notes
Forced to be present - the pressure is off
Living the now is how the body and mind forces you to be in grief
"The ‘now’ is not muddied by the past or the expectation of the future"
Tackling the big topics and being prepared to sit with loss, grief and unexplained emotions
Discovering that the answers to all the questions sit within you if you're prepared to lean into the discomfort
Discovering it's possible to feel closer to people in death than in life
The forgiveness that comes with death
Deliberately seeking the wondrous memories to overcome the sadness
Becoming much more contented and grateful in the face of grief
Live while you are alive and don’t die until you are dead - suck the marrow out of life
Why the fuzziness has been taken out of life - she is rarely not sure anymore
Learning to listen to herself
Learning to make your backyard your world
Why her tree is her favourite place on earth
Waiting for a generation before we see the impact of our actions
By being still you realise you're not separate from nature but part of it.
Why she no longer sees where her skin ends and the bark on the tree begins
Let’s go fly a kite together
Reminding people to seek healing capacity through nature
Finding ways to create a sense of boundless space
Understanding the impact of the colour green
Allow yourself to be where you are
Trust how you’re feeling, what makes you feel better
The varied faces of grief
Why acceptance wasn’t enough - seeking meaning is the next phase
Learning we are in ‘the line’
Becoming livened by the idea that death won’t elude any of us
Discovering how much knowledge is already in your DNA - but learning how to unlock it
Unlearning ‘being the one with all the answers’
Spending time with people who are “experts in life”
Stepping away from manufacturing experiences
Discovering intoxication by being aware of the nature around me rather than the addition of stimulants
The power of observation
Becoming conscious of the subtle nuances in life
Being drawn to the force of a tree
Baby steps to bring change NOW to open a crack of light in life
69 Lisa Wells ~ Making a life at the end of the world
29 Aug 2021
00:46:29
Jade speaks with Lisa Wells, award-winning poet, essayist and author.
In her new book, Believers: Making A Life At The End of the World, Lisa seeks out and learns from trailblazers and outliers around the world who are pursuing radically hopeful lifestyles -- even in the face of climate despair.
There's so much to glean from this conversation: stories and lessons from those living the change, the treasures that await outside the norm, the beauty of bird language, the mess and wonder of non-tech-mediated human relationships and how to sow a fruitful future.
As Lisa puts it, it can take a lifetime to learn how to live -- but hearing from others who have made an art and science of living like tomorrow matters sure helps speed up the process.
SHOW NOTES
It's not her first writing rodeo but it's definitely her first book; it took six years!
She interviewed those who were on the absolute edge of convention. What can we learn from them?
Do human beings have an innate capacity to be beneficial contributors?
Growing up in a DIY sensibility
Finishing her education at wilderness school
Transformation inevitability
Reckoning with the reality that we need to make significant change
Pushing back on binary perspectives and stake-out positions
Making our transformation more attractive: Living in community, re-wilding, growing, trial and error
The physical intimacy of being on her knees in the dirt for the sake of future generations
Recognising that we are just creatures on the planet with a very short lifespan
Wilderness school: becoming rooted in her bioregion
Learning birdsong as a foreign language
Dismantling domestication
Owning what it means to be in relation to others who you are reliant on
Playing the role of translator for the 'outsiders'
Managing balance as an empathetic person
If you want to be in relationship, you need to be willing to throw some chips on the table
Her vision of a fruitful future (without devices and with a whole lotta mess)
It's time to shine the spotlight on our story tellers; the creatives, film makers, artists, poets, chefs, writers and musicians. "If our storytellers cannot find a way then the way cannot be found". Join Jade & Damon in this conversation about defying the attention economy, ways to avoid being numbed but the inertia of the system (which is not actually our friend - despite it being dressed up that way) and why rites of passage could be the answer to rebuilding our culture . Finally, we ask the big question - how do you define ENOUGH. If you've loved Damon's films 2040 & That Sugar Film you're in for one exceptionally powerful convo with this captivating & clever creative.
Episode Summary
People are seeking leadership that doesn’t use language without humanisation So much of the story we are told now is dictated by extraction, competition, rivalry, The shift from humans with animus beliefs to industrialised beliefs Defining our collective stories through the feedback from our creative & soul stirring storytellers Defying the attention economy by stepping away from the barraging information torrent to allow for conscious decisions Finding your place in action Choosing to understand rather than polarising Slowing our judgement despite the push for pace - let a slowly defined opinion be yours Acknowledging we agree on a desire for community, healthy children, access to food….and we are not actually divided Taking responsibility of our own individual actions and teach our children to listen & to understand Why its NOT human nature to be greedy & selfish, because we've evolved through a deeply cooperative, symbiotic spirit. Rewrite our culture away from competitive nature & highlight our dependency on each other Finding your path of individualism within the collective Deradicalising the truth of what we need to do Considering context when storytelling to shift the needle Building a less fragile system Why it’s not a nationalist sentiment if you want sovereignty of independence Shifting from being a consumer to being a citizen Building wings that will allow us to fly high and thrive with our culture providing the wind Manifesting creativity and ingenuity by working with our kids Shaping, creating and changing culture through coexistence, lateral thinking and practical skills - starting with the education of our children The dance between peril and possibility Turning emerging science into magical stories to captivate kids imaginations Prison inmates in the States spend more time outdoors than our children The ongoing process of unlearning as flawed humans Deciding what’s enough. Do you keep working beyond your enough to go slower or do you keep going to give to others. Rites of passage as a pathway to regeneration Ayahuasca ceremonies, breath work Taking a glimpse into the “other” to fill the gap left by a crises of meaning
67 Meg Berryman ~ Regenerative wisdom birthed from the bathroom floor
15 Aug 2021
00:56:17
If climate reports and dystopian vibes are getting you down, this conversation with Meg Berryman might just lift you (gently) from the tiles.
Meg is the host of the Regenerative Life podcast, where she holds activating and catalysing conversations about social change, sustainable business, holistic wellbeing, personal development and regeneration, creating ripples of change from the inside out.
She’s not only a brilliant interviewer, meeting mighty minds like Tyson Yunkaporta and Claire Dunn for the kinds of intellectual-yet-accessible chats that leave listeners awestruck, but a formidable thinker herself.
We’re stoked to welcome Meg for a wide-ranging convo that covers nervous system care, sitting in the magic dark, tending survival energy and watering the seeds of discontent. We discuss the perils of trying to make a positive impact out there if it’s having a negative impact on you and your people. And how to go about satisfying that deep primal yearning to reconnect with self, earth and other beings.
Right now, in this time of grief, confusion + frustration, Meg Berryman is pure medicine. Listen in.
SHOW NOTES
The inspiration behind the Regenerative Life podcast
An unlearning journey of dropping the postures and dropping into true self.
Finding the balance between the unknown + the five year plan.
Challenging domesticity with wildness
Regeneration is an embodied experience; but it’s not as easy as we’ve been sold.
The things we’ve sold as making us happy aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The agitation and restlessness we’re feeling as feedback is not anything wrong with us! The lie of capitalism is that it’s your problem, you need to buy something to fix you.
The seeds of discontent are also the seeds of regeneration
Homeostatic flux: ecosystems are constantly recalibrating according to feedback.
How to reconsider + reevaluate what a good life is.
We have a deep primal yearning to reconnect with ourselves, the earth, other being. That urge is continually being overidden because on some level, we assume there’s something wrong with us.
"It’s not that I’m allergic to life, I’m allergic to the ways we’ve organised society and systems that are so removed from those basic primal instincts of being connected and belonging."
Wisdom birthed from the bathroom floor.
Epic burnout led to total breakdown led to epic recalibration.
Is sheer willpower the only way to get shit done?
Reframing breakdown as a period of magic dark.
We’ve had a health and wellness paradigm for 20 years that’s focussed on DOING things. But that keeps us in survival mode; it’s not sustainable or regenerative.
We need a whole lot of people to be regulated enough, for long enough, to make life giving decisions and make a dent in these systems.
Being in conversation with questions.
How do we come back to ourselves, and is that enough?
Getting out of hustle culture in business.
Everyone is saying, "we can’t slow down because x, y, z….” It’s the courageous soul chooses to interrogate that.
If you’re making impact out there, but that work is having a negative effect on your people in here, it’s a net zero. It’s not regenerative.
The best gift you can give other beings is the gift of a settled system.
If you're yet to hear Mitch perform 'You're the voice", I beg you to head to the link at the bottom and listen. Carrying the message of unification, love and kindness. Culture is not foreign to Mitch who imbeds a celebration of it into every facet of life as tools to build identity and a strong sense of place. For him living and breathing culture is the start middle and end of it. An articulate, straight talker he sheds light on why everyone deserves a chance to not only survive but to thrive. His super-power-story-telling ability notches up a few ranks when on stage and over the last few years he has found a platform for passing on knowledge through song and dance.
Nerves and awe aside, Jade manages to dig a little into the psyche of this incredible individual, who without question shows us why the first nations people of this country were not hunters and gatherers but the most purposeful people to have ever walked.
Show Notes
Ma-wollagoolabah - self, family, community
Falling in love with his identity and eagerly celebrating this in a respectful and authentic way
The value of being raised by a strong single mother
Publicly honoring women to the point of reverence
Being relentless in our desire to keep talking to convey a message of transparency
Circle people - we are connected to everything and everything is connected to us
Can song and dance as mediums take their place as a much needed storytelling tools
Emojis are an ancient format
Humans disconnection from spirit, soul and heart
Being the most connected and the most disconnected simultaneously
Holidays = connection to the natural world. Do we love holidays or do we love the opportunity to unconsciously connect to our evolutionary place
Building an understanding of the spirit in the land
Opening yourself up to ‘feel’
Honoring our ancestors, offering a rightful seat at the decision table and acknowledging the knowledge held by indigenous people
"We're not hunters and gatherers, we’re the most purposeful people to have ever walked
There are so many conversations to be had - we need to keep talking
His mob cared for the land to co-exist not to be captured or controlled
Walking together and healing so we can get to where we need to get to
The first people of a land MUST be heard first
If your hearts in the right place you can only do the best you can with what you've got to ‘level’ up’
Stradling the reality of living an urban life with intent and purpose while knowing how powerful a childhood on country can be
Self perception vs how others perceive you
Instilling identity, belonging and connection through ritual
Living and breathing culture as part of every day life
Avoiding the traps of fame by staying focussed on his purpose
Staying grounded by knowing that he is just a vessel with a message who is part of something so much bigger than him
Starting with self love - heal, educate
Conditioning that has bred fear of difference
Coming together with an intent to heal, love and listen.
Having real conversations which are birthed out of truth
65 Kate Ulman - Fox’s Lane ‘encourager of creativity’
01 Aug 2021
01:00:15
This heart led Mumma of three has been luring us with images of a dreamy, bloom filled life on her Daylesford apple orchard & words of equal romance via her craft blog for over a decade. She laughs easily, has found balance in being real & makes the simplest of thoughts feel like genuine aha moments. Kate Ulman is wrenchingly honest about the reality of farm life with young children, turning inwards when self care is needed & whether her babies will return to life on the land. Although not at her kitchen table, the intimacy of this conversation feels very personal & will leave your cup full & your heart nourished.
Episode notes
Seeing your home the way others do
Realising she is driven by making, creating & beauty
Taking an ugly foundation & making it ‘beautiful’ slowly & sure
The essence of a creative soul raising more creative beings
Evolving with our children who are becoming the people they are going to be
Creating a ‘place’ for our children
The impact of an early childhood experience on a kibbutz
Learning to farm at 30 & retrospectively being amazed they could do it
Growing things organically was our religion but we actually didn’t know how
Life before social media - 10 years of ‘ugliness’ because we could afford the beautiful
Sharing the raw truth of life on the land with a small family
Expectation vs reality
Seasonal appreciation
“Every season is another chance to get last years mistakes better”
The annual pre Winter crises & assessment of reality
Pre farming life as a crafter & blogger
Acknowledging there's a time & place for everything
Filing your soul with the small &simple things but being realistic about doing whats possible
Being kind about expectations
“Being a martyr & running yourself ragged is NOT the solution but being aware & keeping it joyful means you can do it forever”
Saying “I don't know” comfortably
When we take our actions so seriously that it puts other people including the next generation off ever wanting to participate in something worth doing
Letting go of the little things like baking bread for the sake of the bigger picture
Actively engaging with community wherever a snippet can be garnered
Putting her energies into writing a book
Taking back her families story so it wasn’t available to the world online
Rediscovering herself post early childhood mother-dom
Being the complete opposite of organised
Creating a plan for ‘older life’ so the love of the farming life continues
Why bigger is not better. The active vision to make things simpler
Why her mum is her greatest inspiration for her approach to motherhood
How she became the encourager of creativity
Daily exclamation marks of ritual elude her because she follows inspiration instead
Why her good intentions for ritual get forgotten
Why deep diving quickly into real conversations is important to her
Her definition of success as living her truth & being filled with honesty, creativity, availability to the things she cares about
64 Sarah Glover - Going WILD, pushing boundaries + connecting with your primal self
25 Jul 2021
00:44:08
While the path has been somewhat short, this enigmatic & curious chic sees life through a different set of goggles making her excited about all the things she’s yet to learn. Trusting herself & letting faith hold her has made her the queen of the pivot, from culinary school to fireside cooking, cookbooks to online workshops, who knows what tomorrow looks like...for any of us. For now though she is living in Florida, working with the next generation of creatives & taking it one day at a time.
She’ll boost your gumption & perhaps light a fire that sends YOU in a new direction too.
Spontaneously moving back to Florida mid pandemic
How fire catering became her thing
Her winding & unexpected education path
Why her collaboration with Louisa Brimble to create her cookbook series was ‘Art in the making’
Being thankful for longer journeys
Her artististic heritage & homeschooling childhood
Creative Sarah meandered via small business ventures & fell on her bum a few times
Finding the balance between passion & monetised practicality
Putting a price on your work as a creative who still needs to feed yourself
The fear of failure in business, overcome by being humble & owning her foibles
Taking wise counsel from our elders - finding mentors
Growing up in the church resulted in an openness to receiving advice
Pay for the help you need o cover the skills you don’t have or don’t enjoy
Guilding her clan - family first
Separating business from personal
Actively seeking mentorship as a key life pillar - creating a safe, trusted environment to grow.
Rituals to reset & recalibrate; surfing, running, movement + reading, journaling, spiritual recheck
Managing a balanced head + heart life
The silver linings of making mistakes
Losing ‘sarah’ in the busy-ness
Following her intuition to make the big decisions - taking a leap of faith
Removing “stinking thinking” from your world
Embracing WILD
Talking to the next generation to inspire, upskill and connect
The power of curiosity and endlessly asking questions
Seeing with a new set of goggles and getting creative
Seeking the pivot as an opportunity to quench thirst & seek more knowledge
Trusting & taking the first step in the direction of your dreams - just start!
63 Flora, Fauna + Fungi with Dr. Sapphire McMullan-Fisher
18 Jul 2021
00:59:19
Catie chats with Dr. Sapphire McMullan-Fisher, an ecologist with a special interest in biodiversity conservation, particularly macrofungi and mosses.
Sapphire is a renowned scientific researcher, speaker, teacher and author with a knack for communicating fungi’s vital ecological roles — and why we should all pay a lot more attention to these remarkable, all-connecting entities.
She's is also a pretty radical member of the community here in Naarm/Melbourne, who last year let Catie + George transform her suburban backyard into a market garden through the Growing Farmers program.
Wise, lively and friend of the fungi, enjoy this cracking convo with Sapphire McMullan-Fisher.
SHOW NOTES
Being a Gondwanan
Growing up in a mining town in the Pilbara.
From saving African animals to fungi fascination.
A fire and fungi pHD in Tasmania.
Overcoming dyslexia in academia.
Ecosystems need fungi!
Decomposition + partners of plants.
Why to leave the tree debris be.
Journey back to the Carboniferous period when all the coal and oil was formed.
Todays conversation (and the book he just wrote) is for anyone who eats. This much loved, story-telling fat pig farmer shares in very human terms why caring about soil is caring for the future of humanity. And we feel sure that by end you too will be tapping a dance in support of our single greatest foundation for life. He takes a complex topic and makes us all want to fight for it from wherever we are, balconies, veggie patches, community gardens, small acreage or large scale farms. From gut biome and mental health to food production and climate change his words will remind us why humility is needed when it comes to dealing with the ecosystem which feeds us.
Episode Summary
Is soil science impenetrable? He wanted to make it accessible.
Overcoming the identity crisis of soil via storytelling to activate imagination
“ If we just think about soil as the stuff that gets between me and mashed potato then it will never get the attention it really deserves
We have to make everyone care - and get as excited about it as the foundation
The farming movement which is as interested in what happens below the soil as above
98% of all our calories come from topsoil
Australia's agricultural land has lost half of its topsoil in the last 200years
Topsoil feeds us and we need to arrest the loss and cherish the change
Why finding soil builders is more helpful than feeling fear
It takes about 1000 years for nature to create 1cm of topsoil so we need to find a way to make it faster
Finding those who are growing topsoil faster, learning from them and leap frogging
Super big brained soil scientists combined with ancient wisdom is demystifying and reassuring
The super power of solidarity and sharing
Being comfortable with your “work in progress” as temporary custodians
We are only one very small part of a long time scale
Home gardener super heroes not to be underestimated
Every bit of soil matters; pot plants, lawn, vegie garden, community gardens
Small domestic gardens feed 1 billion people globally. 70% of food grown in the world is grown in domestic environments
Most of where we live is former food growing land but can we reignite it for food production again
Bringing our children up to value soil and farming while being engaged in a world that is interesting to them.
Honest insights into parenthood as a farmer
How to bring a relentlessly stimulated culture on a slow and gentle journey
The 'Old Friends and hygiene' hypothesis'
Embracing a world which is dominated from bacteria - accepting we are PART of it and healthier when entrenched in it.
The interconnectedness of how we exist in the world
We haven't been humble enough to recognise that the thing which feeds us properly needs to be allowed to do its thing properly.
The miracle of watching seeds grow.
Nature’s on our side but we have to give it a chance.
Caring about soil is caring about the future of humanity. We really all need to care about its fate and currently we don't.
If you don't know this marvellous lass, that's probably because she keeps a pretty low profile online, preferring to spend her days in a state of sensuous connection with the world, pursuing everything money can't buy. And she has some excellent tips for helping you do the same.
Annie and Catie cover a lot of ground in this convo, from hitchhiking adventures and weed foraging to chronic conditions, choosing life over career and controversial acts in the face of climate change. We know we say this every time... but this one's a goodie!
SHOW NOTES
Single parent family taught her to be independent, responsible, frugal.
Epic hitchhiking journeys around Australia.
Discovering different ways of having fun that don’t cost money.
When hitchhiking becomes a form of talk therapy.
Attention as a practise.
What to do when Monkey Mind takes over and you stop seeing the beauty in the everyday.
Humans as story-addicted creatures.
Solistalgia — when you’re nostalgic for where you are.
The rate of change in modern society and how that disrupts a sense of place, belonging.
How to plant yourself in new places.
The sensory pleasure of the weather.
Weather makes landscape and landscape makes culture.
The origins of her love of weeds.
Plant-filtering laser eyeballs that seek out food.
There’s food you can eat that has zero environmental impact, beyond homegrown veggies.
Writing a novel in celebration of non-utilitarian, fruity, hyper-abundant language.
How a cancelled hike led to a quirky storyline.
How to orchestrate a life in which time and adventures are plentiful.
The beauty of turning down requests (even when they’re super impressive).
The conscious choice not to have children.
Giving work the flick in favour of life.
How a chronic health condition has affirmed her choices and priorities.
"I’d rather not eat out, not buy new clothes, and spend lots of my time at the beach (which is what I’m currently doing)."
Dealing with guilt about working less.
Why keep trying to accrue more money more once you have enough?
Protestant work ethic upbringing needs to be questioned right now.
The ‘work’ of being a low-consumer is valid too.
“I believe in the pattern of a society that these frugal habits are part of… and I want to perpetuate that.”
Controversial tips for changing the world.
Amazement as a tool for appreciating ordinary objects; being less wasteful.
It’s a novel time. The rules are now different. Having children being the norm can no longer be part of the status quo.
Drive less! Use your car if you would hire a car to do that thing, otherwise, find a different way.
Good times with human beings is not something to be lazy about.
60 Stacey June ~ Author, podcaster & honest sharer
27 Jun 2021
00:46:40
From confident whizz kid to suffering imposter syndrome - heck haven’t we all - this accomplished millennial spokeswoman and now author shares her tales of covid motherhood, the power of stories to ground us and working through the bravado to pop out at her truth.
We like to call her Pacey Stacey-June, she thinks, speaks and acts at a cracking rate but despite this, has a gentle, soulful sense of wisdom and refreshing honesty.
SHOW NOTES
Her 2020 reality: Editing a book, having a baby and living life in lockdown
Beating one beat ahead of her surroundings
Lockdown lessons - thriving in ISO
Reasons to ‘get real’ fast
The difference between the medium of audio and the medium of written words
What gave her Imposter syndrome and how storytelling reassured her
The truth of writing and rewriting a manuscript BEFORE you send it to the editor
Working through the bravado and digging to the truth of not knowing everything
The confronting challenge of embracing shortcomings
The broken nature of our education system which creates self doubt and builds walls
Owning “Author-dom”
Learning to have a better conversation with your intuition and trusting your instinct
Why she things there’s really only a handful of feelings
Transitioning from passionate, ambitious and self focused pre motherhood to being humbled by a new born which has taught me the most epic lessons of my life.
Redefining her values following motherhood
Her curiosity for other womens stories and why she honors them to rebut the patriarchy
Having to hunt out stories of people who represented her
The bullshit theory that all women in the sisterhood should get along but acknowledging that a feminine energy connects us and gives us strength
“Women have more in common than not and if we could just get past the bullshit then we could definitely build a sisterhood that holds us”
The difference between community and having a lot of people in our life
Getting past shallow connections, demanding we give more of ourselves in return for a robust community to be wrapped around us
How motherhood helps you to build a community
Building self through repetitive practices
Finding quiet so her inner voice will speak to her rather than her speaking to it.
Giving her intuition a name “my divine”
Honouring anxiety by giving it enough quiet time
The value of creating flexible plans rather than rules so you don’t feel like you’ve broken an agreement
The difference between her public and her private profile
The value of protecting her intimate self by taking a deep breath before oversharing in a public realm.
167 Meg Berryman, regenerative wisdom birthed on the bathroom floor - Summer Days throwbacks 2025
19 Jan 2025
00:56:17
If climate reports and dystopian vibes are getting you down, this conversation with Meg Berryman might just lift you (gently) from the tiles.
Meg is the host of the Regenerative Life podcast, where she holds activating and catalysing conversations about social change, sustainable business, holistic wellbeing, personal development and regeneration, creating ripples of change from the inside out.
She’s not only a brilliant interviewer, meeting mighty minds like Tyson Yunkaporta and Claire Dunn for the kinds of intellectual-yet-accessible chats that leave listeners awestruck, but a formidable thinker herself.
We’re stoked to welcome Meg for a wide-ranging convo that covers nervous system care, sitting in the magic dark, tending survival energy and watering the seeds of discontent. We discuss the perils of trying to make a positive impact out there if it’s having a negative impact on you and your people. And how to go about satisfying that deep primal yearning to reconnect with self, earth and other beings.
Right now, in this time of grief, confusion + frustration, Meg Berryman is pure medicine. Listen in.
SHOW NOTES
The inspiration behind the Regenerative Life podcast
An unlearning journey of dropping the postures and dropping into true self.
Finding the balance between the unknown + the five year plan.
Challenging domesticity with wildness
Regeneration is an embodied experience; but it’s not as easy as we’ve been sold.
The things we’ve sold as making us happy aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The agitation and restlessness we’re feeling as feedback is not anything wrong with us! The lie of capitalism is that it’s your problem, you need to buy something to fix you.
The seeds of discontent are also the seeds of regeneration
Homeostatic flux: ecosystems are constantly recalibrating according to feedback.
How to reconsider + reevaluate what a good life is.
We have a deep primal yearning to reconnect with ourselves, the earth, other being. That urge is continually being overidden because on some level, we assume there’s something wrong with us.
"It’s not that I’m allergic to life, I’m allergic to the ways we’ve organised society and systems that are so removed from those basic primal instincts of being connected and belonging."
Wisdom birthed from the bathroom floor.
Epic burnout led to total breakdown led to epic recalibration.
Is sheer willpower the only way to get shit done?
Reframing breakdown as a period of magic dark.
We’ve had a health and wellness paradigm for 20 years that’s focussed on DOING things. But that keeps us in survival mode; it’s not sustainable or regenerative.
We need a whole lot of people to be regulated enough, for long enough, to make life giving decisions and make a dent in these systems.
Being in conversation with questions.
How do we come back to ourselves, and is that enough?
Getting out of hustle culture in business.
Everyone is saying, "we can’t slow down because x, y, z….” It’s the courageous soul chooses to interrogate that.
If you’re making impact out there, but that work is having a negative effect on your people in here, it’s a net zero. It’s not regenerative.
The best gift you can give other beings is the gift of a settled system.
59 Berry Liberman ~ Change maker, language lover, powerhouse, owning her shit
20 Jun 2021
00:54:52
As publisher of Dumbo Feather & Co-owner of Small Giants, Berry is one heck of a leader who doesn’t shy away from wearing her heart, beliefs and the paradox of life on her sleeve. In her own words she is ‘living with meaning in this one wild & precious life’ & as a master of language this interview will challenge you, pave the road for asking questions & fill you with fierce hope.
SHOW NOTES
Being a good ancestor by leaving a legacy
Adulting = knowing your decisions leave an impact
Being shocked into asking essential questions
Sitting in the uncomfortable truth to work things out owning your identity & bringing weight to your beliefs
Activism & violence is correlative - group think thrives in this environment
The grandchild of holocaust survivors, the daughter of a refugee entrepreneur - her intergenerational trauma gives her strength to take an opinion
Her interest in the moderate centre for a radical shift
Navigating her kids through the complexity of being culturally different
Being proximate to the issues we need to put our efforts into
Why we need to have opinions despite living in a world of cancel culture
Rehumanise, relocalise & embrace hard conversations respectfully
The value of finding wisdom without action
Bringing the three dimensional view of hands, head and hard to the table with kindness & generosity.
Creating online communities which are nourishing & useful not toxic and depleting
Pulsing so you can continue to show up
Building touchstones of people who are conscious, emotionally intelligent, empathetic
Minimising the obsession with the ego. Why the hero’s journey is a false narrative
Shit gets interesting when we are awake to the beauty of this incredible planet
The subtle shift of changing your thoughts from things happening ‘to’ me to things happening ‘for’ me
We can all own a regenerative, restorative future but we need to do this together
The fraught promise of collaboration
Ownership means nothing but everything
Become an elder by taking ownership of actions
Why context matters
Using AND instead of BUT so you don’t negate everything you’ve already said so you can hold multiplicity & not be reductionist
Living meaningfully in this one wild & precious life.
Being inspired by language - the most incredible technology we’ve invented
QUOTES
“If you keep things in, you project things out, the shadows can haunt you” “It’s easier to have a broad tent of acceptance when those you are engaging are proximate” “If I haven’t metabolised my story, I can't be of use to the future” “Australians weren’t born into hatred of the “other”
58 - Natasha Morgan shares her Oak and Monkey Puzzle life
13 Jun 2021
00:43:27
Jade takes a peek inside the clever, creative and quietly brilliant world of Natasha Morgan.
Natasha is, in her own words, a landscape architect and urban designer byprofession, and a multi-disciplinary creative collaborator by natural inclination. Anyone who’s been to Natasha’s design hub and home, Oak and Monkey Puzzle, can attest to that.
After throwing career caution to the wind and enrolling herself in the school of life, Natasha and family embarked on a major tree-change from Melbourne to a five acre property in rural Victoria, learning to live with the seasons, grow and gather, preserve, make and embed themselves in place.
This honest and passionate conversation reveals what it’s like to relinquish international renown and kindle a simple existence in partnership with nature. Clairvoyant chooks included.
SHOW NOTES
Blooming independence that came from her childhood
Her mum's immigration story
A childhood love of getting in the dirt to grow things
Architecture to landscape architecture and then urban design and place making.
“During my times of greatest challenge, I gardened my way through it.”
How people connect with places and the stories of the landscape
“My real curiosity about people developed as I developed curiosity about myself.”
Creating immediacy with her endeavours
A desire to build a life via the disparate threads of interests she had.
Despite managing a 17 million dollar project, she couldn't get her child to sleep
How a humble chalkboard was the catalyst to create an entirely new life
The complexity and celebration that comes with collaboration.
Seeking solace and inspiration in your surroundings
“I’ve never in my life had such a deep respect for soil, sun and water - they've become my currency.”
“While I can’t change the world around me, I can change this five acre plot.”
Coming to peace with the severity of seasonality and the cyclical nature of growing food
“The seasons are like old friends - they bring a reverence for what’s around us.”
The role of chickens in settling a 10 year old autistic mind
Creating an immersive life with kids so their imaginations can thrive
Acknowledging the grief that comes with an autism diagnosis
While neuro-diversity is ‘bloody hard’ it’s also an incredible gift
Reconnecting with the inner - “No amount of accolades could give me the joy I get from seeing my children find the first pine mushroom of the season."
Making space for experiences rather than things.
Transitioning slowly and intentionally via storytelling
How sharing a dream bought bigger ideas to fruition incrementally
You don't need a lot to do something, but being curious is the first step.
Changing your life within your areas of influence.
"I let gardening be the one thing in my life that I didn't have to be in control of. It gave me permission to make mistakes."
57 Helena Norberg-Hodge charts a clear path towards systemic healing & oneness.
06 Jun 2021
00:55:13
Helena Norberg-Hodge is a writer, filmmaker, international speaker and leader of the global localisation movement.
She’s been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than 40 years, and is one of the world’s most treasured environmentalists and visionaries.
Today Helena pulls up an apple crate at the Futuresteading campfire to share stories from Ladakh, lament the madness of globalization and light the way back (and forward) to oneness.
We discuss the true wealth of traditional societies, the dangers of scale and tech solutions, pressure to conform to a consumer monoculture, and the real economy of Mother Gaia. Oh, she’s brilliant folks. We’re so excited to welcome you into this conversation.
SHOW NOTES
How she ended up on a remote plateau in Tibetan India.
Discovering the healthiest, happiest, most peaceful people she had ever met.
Existing under surveillance in times of political tension.
The true wealth of traditional societies.
Why people everywhere are being pressured to conform to a consumer monoculture.
A need for a deeper dialogue between the west and the global south.
The path of separation; being herded into urban centres and separated from the land.
Instead of being dependent on the land, we became dependent on enormous institutions to meet our needs.
Manufactured scarcity.
The luxury of using more energy per person per capita… is it actually a luxury?
Policy change is needed to make decentralisation possible
Pollies on auto-pilot re. urbanisation. Governments are separating us from the sources of our food, creating unsustainable, toxic, energy-hungry situations in the name of growth.
Why most people are getting poorer despite our obsession with growth.
Towards smaller towns and smaller cities.
When you shorten the distance between farm and table, you have market pressure towards diversity.
What happens when people are replaced by energy and technology.
Stay away from the propaganda that’s saying we need technological fixes.
In Ladakh, everyone grows up with a multi-dimensional knowledge of how to grow, build, make clothes, dance, create.
How modernity negatively affects young people versus radiantly confident youth in Ladakh.
Australia flies food to China to be processed before being flown back again.
The things we aren’t hearing about in the climate movement.
Are people in power totally evil?
Localisation is a clear path towards systemic healing.
Simple policy changes can catalyse radical change.
Why there is no distinction between human and non-human life.
There is a huge awakening happening!
The real economy is Mother Gaia.
We aren’t so greedy after all.
What happens when we create human-scale interventions.
Experiencing oneness and the fabric of interdependence via localisation.
World Localization Day! What it’s about and how you can get involved.
56 Fiona Weir Walmsley of Buena Vista Farm: Living from scratch!
30 May 2021
00:51:17
If you consider yourself multipassionate, someone who entertains a vast array of interests (while regularly feeling overwhelmed), then we have the role model for you!
Fiona Weir Walmsley of Buena Vista Farm in Gerringong, NSW, has walked a quirky and colourful path, embodying the diversity and adaptability we so desperately need for a resilient future.
From running a medieval catering company to earning her marketing stripes, living ‘from scratch’ and leading women in local food, keeping bees, tending goats and, gosh, writing a book while she’s at it… Fiona is our kind of renaissance farmer!
Hear how Fiona and her family have created a super diverse existence on 18 acres (think goats, chooks, cows, veggies, cheese, cut flowers + cooking school) -- and enjoyed the kind of riches money will never buy.
SHOW NOTES
She is writing a book! Cooking food from scratch.
Her “from scratch” life.
A background in commercial cookery, medieval history and marketing.
Why she locked the front door for this interview…
Buena Vista biscuits built a local presence
Transitioning back to her family farm
Farming succession planning: five generations of dairy farmers
Discovering Joel Salatin
Building a commercial kitchen to kick off cash flow
“We swore to ourselves we would never take being given a farm for granted.”
Diversifying to be financially viable: bees, chickens, goats, market gardening, cooking school, book writing.
“Sometimes our heads feel like they're going to fall off and my brains will come out of my ears.”
Creating a community of WWOOFers and watching them go on to do incredible things.
Getting practical with support from online apps to stay on top of everything.
Transitioning her market garden to cut flowers.
Ebbing and flowing the various business arms depending on who has the energy, what season it is, what the greater market forces are doing.
Her ‘farm native’ babies
Getting a local, weekly farmers market off the ground.
“When farmers markets are weekly, it changes peoples food buying habits.”
Actively participating in a female led, food-centric community.
Is her life photoshopped? How real is the grid?
The pain in the arse truth about sourdough.
Finding solidarity with others who have a collaborative vision.
Helping younger people get a leg up into regen ag.
Sourdough was the first “SLOW FOOD”.
Living this way is never going to make sense financially; you have to uncouple your thinking from capitalism ways and instead see the rewards as non-fiscal.
55 Mara of ORTO Farm ~ Creating a Circular & Loving Village
23 May 2021
00:58:25
Today Jade sits down with one of those luminous beings who’s living like tomorrow matters with deep intention and integrity.
Mara of Village Dreaming and ORTO Farm near Daylesford shares stories from her slow food life and lyrical observations (to the tune of ‘riding a bike to work in the city is like experiencing a musical’) that’ll linger long after this convo wraps up.
Mara describes her Italian roots and being a waste renegade, the magic of WWOOFing and running a cooking school, wildlife corridors and messages to her 20 year old self.
It’s better than a big bowl of bolognese with hot-buttered garlic bread and it's yours for the devouring.
SHOW NOTES
Sharing our lives on social media
Why there should be more shame in waste
Building adventure through salvaging waste
Diverting waste as a human rights and social issue
Being an eco-renegade
Her Italian heritage that provides a foundation for living with heart
Being surrounded by love has allowed her to be a lover in return
Being 110% herself
Naming her farm to reflect a circular and loving village
Hand building a home that is the culmination of a 20 year journey in community building/love of food
The Magic of WWOOFing; refilling hearts, rebuilding skills and recreating rhythms
Her desire to be the archetypal mother
Running a cooking school in your own home with heart, song and dance
Having a partner who is as warm, delicious and inviting as ricotta
Creating ORTO farm: berries, olives, wildlife corridors, orchards and one-day pigs on pasture
Messages to her 20 year old self - well done!
Years of searching for like minded individuals
Why the music industry interrupted her need to be ‘home for dinner’
Discovering permaculture
Her pure love of cycling
The privilege of building her own straw bale house using ‘light earth'
Adding a greenhouse on the northern side of her house = revolutionary outcome
The work needed to retrofit housing stock in this country
Why ENOUGH is reflected in the health of relationships
Being part of a world that actively manages the impacts of climate change
Managing the ‘daunt’ of educating our kids without them experiencing dread and fear
Giving kids rope to make their own decisions
Struggling to say “life is going to get harder” (but knowing it’s the truth)
The power of bringing disparate groups together to effect real change! We re more alike than not.
Removing judgement and expectations from transition
Seeing glints in peoples eyes when they consider their homes as life havens
54 Alice Crowe ~ Botanist, meditator + radical life pivot specialist
16 May 2021
00:49:20
This week, Catie sits down with Alice Crowe in her plant-filled Melbourne home for a chat over tea and marmalade toast.
Alice is a Botanist, kitchen gardener at Heide Museum of Modern Art, founder of The Lush Forest, president of Growing Farmers and former litigation lawyer who underwent a pretty radical life pivot -- ample inspiration for anyone who’s ever wanted to ‘just quit everything’ to see what happens next.
We talk: pulling the pin on conventional success, the primal energy of the rainforest, boring habits (that make for a beautiful life), can backyard farming feed the world? and things you can’t go to your grave without knowing.
SHOW NOTES
The journey from litigation lawyer to botany nerd.
The perils and pure distraction of perpetual busy-ness.
When your body says NUP.
When external metrics of success don’t align with your internal compass.
Quitting a corporate career without a plan.
Taking three months off to do who-knows-what.
How quickly wellness returns when you Just Stop.
How a short horticulture course at Burnley College became a Master of Science (Botany).
Idolising people who wear secateurs on their belt.
Approaching nurseries as a mature-age assistant with no skills and no experience.
The joy of pottering around watering geraniums.
Realising that the simple, non-intellectual stuff is where it’s at for happiness.
An epiphany thanks to Ficus elastica.
How to honour what your heart wants when that’s not necessarily what the world wants.
Less noise during the pandemic = more clarity.
Boring habits that facilitate contentment, peacefulness.
Why being in a tropical rainforest is a primeval, sensory experience.
Brain explosion! How did we get these amazing plants and universe?
Things you can’t go to your grave not knowing.
The delight in the mundane and the magic of dumb questions.
Why everyone should look at something through a microscope once daily!
Photosynthesis = SORCERY.
The story of plant evolution is the story of the earth.
Why we need more scientific literacy to fight misinformation that hobbles climate action.
The folly of mental striving. We’ve got what we’ve got.
The paradox of changemaking: Is it more effective when you’re not out to succeed?
Rebecca Solnit.
The garden of your mental health.
Meditation as foundation.
Why true acceptance is truly courageous.
The myth of the individual, self-sufficient unit.
No individual can fight a system. How to get on the systems waves with others!
How Growing Farmers began and how it’s transforming backyards, local food systems, new farmer opportunities and (with any luck) the planet.
Building non-transactional community relationships.
Will we go down the tech farming or agroecology road?
Why all the academic arguments in the world aren’t a substitute for just giving it a go.
Why shifting our current paradigm and lifestyle is terrifying!
Practising new systems while things are relatively ‘stable’.
Talking to kids who are scared about climate change.
Sit with us on a wooden bench in Sim’s city plot, freshly planted with broad beans, garlic and greens, as we chat about the realities of small-scale farming in Australia’s second largest city. (Don’t mind the occasional plane or magpie serenade.)
Sim has been leading the charge in urban ag for years, better known as ‘that guy who turned the front yard of his rental into a market garden’ following a Curtis Stone-style approach.
Without owning any land himself, Sim has tended numerous backyard farms in inner-suburban Melbourne, offering CSA veggie boxes (delivered by electric bike!) to his local community, plus a heckload of inspiration to aspiring growers.
We talk educational pathways, finances, unexpected pests (and their excrement) and the power of surrounding yourself with a believable solution to the impossible issues of our time.
SHOW NOTES
Why backyard growing is so much more than food production
Compost as the gateway to the interconnectedness of nature and human systems
Completing a permaculture design course to 'join the dots’ on systems
Finding good people who have already done what you want to do - then copying them.
Setting yourself up as an urban micro farmer ain't straightforward!
Striking relationships with people who have spare space and are eager to see it productive.
Making the business viable via a CSA model
Trawling google maps to find unused empty blocks and hitting up the landlords for a dual relationships.
How food is as political as it is connective.
Front yards > backyards
Seeking permission to use rental properties for micro businesses .
Setting up a farmgate on your verge
Going to the ‘dark side’ of facebook to engage his community
Making crust with values intact - honest insights into the financial reality of urban farming.
Simplicity as the baseline for this life.
Acknowledging his ‘underserved position of privilege’.
A vision of Melbourne being a leading hub of urban agriculture.
Minimum viability scale of 2 hectares
How life aspirations change with experience and time.
Pests and poo in food production spaces
Why time is your greatest asset as a market gardener
Repeated existential crisis that lead to farming as his way of ‘doing something and being part of something that is positive'.
We are at a time in history where we could sacrifice a little more
"I’m 30 and Id like to see a future where I wont be so mad at myself for not doing anything."
Being a human scale change-maker.
Taking a leap which makes the leap for the next person less of a jump.
52 Laura Dalrymple: Ms Feather, food system poet + being an Ethical Omnivore
02 May 2021
01:00:06
“Meat is hard” as Laura Dalrymple (of Feather and Bone fame) knows only too well. But this ethical meat mistress also knows that demonising meat is a distraction from the much bigger and much more urgent issues of our time.
Taking the hard questions head on is what Laura does best with an eloquence and warmth that makes you wonder what was so problematic in the first place.
In this hour of conversation we discuss taking ownership of our own actions by tapping into our own moral scales to find a balance that’s right for each of us. And feeling solidarity in the knowledge that, “Food is the universal connector that is a powerful political, social, economic and cultural force that we need right now”.
SHOW NOTES
Tackling the food system issues via ethical meat
Engaging people emotionally and intellectually to transform the food system
Taking actions to shorten the supply chain
Retelling core myths in new ways
The genesis of her book “The Ethical Omnivore’
The insane juggle of raising a family while running a business and writing a book
Why optimism is important in these times of change
Arresting eco anxiety
Facing hypocrisy daily
Restoring cultural landscapes in short time frames
Managing the frustration of the “say/do gap”
Why change is slow and hard but worth the journey
Why a food system needs more than just farmers; it also needs storytellers and eaters and wholesalers, community builders
We don’t have time to be precious about our values position or our patch; we face serious issues and we need open hearted, respectful and non-judgemental togetherness to enact change.
Being vigilant about doing the “best you can” rather than “the best there is”.
Food is the universal connector that that unlocks change in a powerful way
Jade's story of rebuilding a community through the lens of her new knowledge
Being capable of straddling multiple ideals
The power of wholistic thinking rather than silo mentality
The magnetic process that occurs where you move into the orbits of the people who have similar ideals
The demonisation of meat in recent years which seem to distract from the issues at hand
Writing a book that's an embodiment of transparency
Talking about slaughter is the kiss of death but it's critical to talk about it or it will become a dark opaque corner of the universe that everyone ignores.
Answering the most asked, most confronting question: “How did the animal die?"
51 Brooke McAlary on the farce of multitasking, the appeal of vision quests & the power of slow.
25 Apr 2021
01:02:14
Brooke McAlary has built a life and brand around slow. She's the author of three books, the co-host of The Slow Home podcast and the voice of a movement that says, "Dear Joneses, I'm opting out of the rat race."
But hey, that doesn't mean she's exempt from overwhelm. This convo opens with Brooke and Jade swapping stories of exhaustion. File that under honesty.
So join us on the couch as we define our zone zero, get our inner turmoil sorted before facing the outer chaos, and discuss a potential inner care deficit.
We talk packaged up versions of “balance” “slow” and “simple” and why “tilting” may be more useful; leaning into the most pressing issue of the moment.
Why multi tasking is a farce but barefoot bushwalking creates a heady sense of lightness, wonder and awe that just might hold the answers.
Say no to fast and yes to slow living with Brooke McAlary.
SHOW NOTES
Why her books and pod are basically talking to herself to maintain a slower pace
Being diagnosed with severe postnatal depression
Googling in search of solutions
Letting go of the relentless ‘keep up’ approach to life
Stabilising mental health and finding a deeper sense of contentment
Living life with no buffer
Operating at 70% capacity to ensure there’s room for unplanned
Defining and protecting zone zero
Getting the inner turmoil sorted before facing the outer chaos
Avoiding an inner care deficit
The intrinsic link between inward care and capacity to give
Why the words 'balance', 'simple' and 'slow' are all fraught
The endless wrestle of living counter culturally
Learning to “tilt” rather than “balance”
The fraudulence of multi tasking
Experiencing a loss of connection, celebration and grieving as a result of covid
Facing into the need for ‘unlearning’ to build a brave new non-consumerist world
Building your tribe without preaching
Equating simple with ‘ease’ not ‘easy’
Why simplicity lives in the process of finding ease
Noticing = gratitude
Family rituals that offer hope
Barefoot bushwalking on a bliss wave
A designated slow room
Reconciling the footprint of travel by embracing her local area
Vision Quests
Why small actions of care, purpose and values are creating powerful ripples
Rebuilding rites of passage for our youth to test and expand resilience and tap into the wisdom from older generations
50 Pip Lincolne on writing books, defining ‘enough’ & multiple careers in one lifetime
18 Apr 2021
00:49:17
Having just moved back to her childhood home in Tasmania, Pip Lincolne is celebrating the launch of her latest book “Days Like These” while giving herself time and space to etch her place in a new community. And of course, create for the love of it.
This conversation speaks to the value of taking a temperature check on your feelings, asking consent before giving advice, having ‘enough’ rather than excess, and why success lies in the simplest of things -- not least of which is an insatiable love of books.
SHOW NOTES
Writing books that are heart on sleeve
The creative journey of meet me at mikes
Life with clinical depression and chronic anxiety and turning it into something worthwhile for others
If mums are not ok then no-one else is ok
The collaborative journey of writing a book
Building friendship and community groups through creativity
Taking the gloss off and replacing it with grit in the way we tell our stories
Being true and sincere for the sake of empowering others
Making the move to Tassie following a covid job loss
“When you return to the place you grew up in, it's like you’ve left pieces of your DNA there and your body knows that this is where you belong."
Taking the time to narrow ideas rather than taking on too much
The joy of being a cog in the wheel and falling in behind others
The creative doing is what matters most, not the end result.
Taking time to unwind our minds with daydreams, procrastination
Valuing the ‘middle-of-the-night’ interruptions
Hot tip for mums to change the lens of insomnia to avoid the anxiety spiral
Advice for giving advice - seek permission and offer to listen first
Acknowledging that a person in crisis doesn’t want to be processed and managed rather “heard” and trusted
Success is about having close bonds with your kids, a few close friends, supportive family, a cosy home and enough money to get by.
Keeping her desires for MORE focussed on the non material things.
A day in the life of a writer
If you’re ever stuck, “take it to the back fence, the answers are there”
166 Flora Fauna & Fungi w Dr Saphire McMullen-Fisher - Summer Days Throwback 2025
12 Jan 2025
00:59:19
Catie chats with Dr. Sapphire McMullan-Fisher, an ecologist with a special interest in biodiversity conservation, particularly macrofungi and mosses.
Sapphire is a renowned scientific researcher, speaker, teacher and author with a knack for communicating fungi’s vital ecological roles — and why we should all pay a lot more attention to these remarkable, all-connecting entities.
She's is also a pretty radical member of the community here in Naarm/Melbourne, who last year let Catie + George transform her suburban backyard into a market garden through the Growing Farmers program.
Wise, lively and friend of the fungi, enjoy this cracking convo with Sapphire McMullan-Fisher.
SHOW NOTES
Being a Gondwanan
Growing up in a mining town in the Pilbara.
From saving African animals to fungi fascination.
A fire and fungi pHD in Tasmania.
Overcoming dyslexia in academia.
Ecosystems need fungi!
Decomposition + partners of plants.
Why to leave the tree debris be.
Journey back to the Carboniferous period when all the coal and oil was formed.
This inner city mother of three is the self-appointed Compost Queen who single-handedly collects scraps from her neighbours and local cafes to reduce food waste and produce garden gold.
As well as being an activist on the ground, she’s also a compost influencer in the ether. Kate is gaining thousands of followers on Instagram who love her catchy content and colourful tutorials on making grade-A hot compost. What's more, her stats are translating into action.
In this convo, Kate shares the story of her potted street garden on the pavement in inner city Sydney, the cooling power of greenery in urban spaces, how she's using social media for good, and strategies for Insta-stalking local MPs to agitate for change.
Upbeat, down-to-earth, anything-is-possible stuff from her Right Royal Highness of Compost.
SHOW NOTES
Why composting is her number one focus!
Being a share waste user
Composting in a tiny inner city terrace
Being a crazy urban bowerbird
Creating a composting ‘mothership' to service her ‘compost hungry’ needs
Compost wars with her mum
Creating a potted street garden for her community
Inviting neighbours to join her on this quest
Swapping and sharing
Permaculture wars in the suburbs
Extending friendships beyond a sprig of mint
Hoarding behaviour during covid
Why it’s important to have fun when encouraging change
The potency but potential poison of social media
Making compost a happy and exciting message via memes, music and comedy
Channeling eco-activism between kids' naps
Encouraging second hand presents
Protecting the childhood years of wonder
Rising children who are empowered by their ability to action
Finding your ONE thing!
Food waste as a catalyst for climate impact
Focussing on local letter writing and agitation to bring about change
Making the most of opportunities on our verges
Change can really happen in the tiny strips of soil between roads and footpaths
The power of green in a city is amplified against the black bitumen
Using movable pots in a rental to change the use of the streetscape
Urban sprawl by way of potted plants rather than houses
Use of signage and lights to activate your street pot garden
Being at peace if anything is stolen
Getting resource savvy with the things you can find rather than always buying new
Come with us to a homesteading, homeschooling farmhouse in Pennsylvania where the days start early and the blessings are abundant.
Grab a yellow chair on the porch (to the tune of morning crickets) and meet Sarah Stutzman, the down-to-earth powerhouse behind Wellfolk Revival, a place to meet belly to belly and up-skill yourself, your kids and your community.
This is one of those rocking chair chats that offers a glimpse into someone else's world; their daily habits and ways of thinking. Their challenges and triumphs. Their personal paradigm.
And even if you don't aspire to be a modern day homesteader, this convo could very well revive whatever latent life dreams you've got hiding in there. Time to action them?
SHOW NOTES
Raising kids in a “new normal”
The value of community sufficiency
What is homesteading?
Her childhood on a Christmas tree farm surrounded by exotic animals before moving to life in a subdivision
Accidentally homesteading via a desire to know where her food came from
Using skills to teach people how to start a garden, grow their food and take baby steps
Building community
Resources needed for up-skilling
Craving community
Bringing people around the table to learn
Pivoting business around Covid
Eating organ meats and head cheese
Embracing the chaos and imperfection
Blowing the romance perception and keeping it real
Be the ripple effect by inviting people to your real house (messy and all) at any time and encouraging them to share their new skills with others
Getting the kids involved so the foundations to hold them during the rebellion phase are strong
Letting kids feel their own way and encouraging them to learn through mistakes
Getting past our own failures, focus on our successes
Integrating with the local Amish, traditional farmers and new wave of micro farms
Connecting!
Reconciling the process of taking life to sustain our own nutritional needs
Counting the things on your plate that you have a connection to
Avoiding the throw away mentality
Using the ENTIRE animal to honour the WHOLE and not just the best parts
Looking for the blessings in between the constant hard work
Nourishing our bodies with good food and our minds with beautiful things
Stopping and embracing the simple moments as a measure of success
Seeing success through the eyes of a child
The power of pulling out other people's gifts and talents
Avoiding the overwhelm of the emergency by doing the small things every day
47 Emma-Kate Rose - Connecting country farmers to city cousins by crowdfunding $2 million
21 Mar 2021
00:49:34
Does activism always have to be so serious? Nup, says Emma-Kate Rose. Lighten up and let your hair down, let’s face our collective challenges in lycra!
It was fitting that Emma-Kate was on her way to No Lights No Lycra as we recorded this convo, because her radical approach to balancing work and play is probably the most refreshing thing you’ll hear all day.
After quitting her career in criminology inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Emma-Kate went on to crowdfund $2 million for Brissy Food Connect’s community hub with partner Rob Pekin. Impressive stuff. She’s also a mother, social entrepreneur, community builder, risk taker, intuition-follower, and big fan of ‘sticking to your knitting’.
Emma-Kate shares her transition from avid consumer to climate activist, unexpected ways to mobilise community, how indigenous epistemology infuses Food Connect, creating careholders not shareholders, bleeding days, part time work and food sovereignty. Look, it's a pretty frivolous conversation ;)
Get snacks and press play on the wonderful Emma-Kate Rose!
SHOW NOTES
An urban start in Sydney
The cycle of boom and bust in her own childhood home led to questioning “why people do bad things”.
Her career in criminology before taking on the food system
Being hit with the “tonne of bricks that is climate change”.
Starting a local climate action group
Starting a car sharing business
Selling the cars and putting the family on public transport and bicycles.
Encouraging various economies to embrace de-carbonisation.
Accidentally crowd funding $2 million to keep the wheels of Brisbane Food Connect turning and in the hands of community ownership.
Manifesting intentions and creating visions despite having no money and no idea how.
Questioning enough to move the needle rather than settling for business as usual solutions.
Food Connect as a social enterprise that provides a platform for multiple values aligned businesses a chance to incubate into a supported environment.
Offering office space to social entrepreneurs who need affordable access to office space.
Incorporating indigenous epistemology into their business
Creating careholders not share holders
Fun over ideology
Why we're ready to have a national conversation about embracing Indigenous culture
Reassessing our sense of time and urgency -- “Act now is required but do we do that at the expense of our relationships with our fellow human beings?"
Walking the talk and building a life that really honours a balanced life: work, community contribution, joy.
Whats a bleeding day?
Escaping the trap of being earnest in your activism
Making the most of bringing people together while we can
Plug in, listen up and let your imagination run 100 000 years into the future.
Joshua Gilbert is a Worimi man, farmer, entrepreneur, environmental advocate and truth teller with a vision for a sustainable future -- and boy is it beautiful.
We chat with Josh about the 60 000 years of agricultural history in his bones, why ‘Indigenous farming’ isn’t some separate and immutable thing, what the 26th of January means to him and why asking daft questions is all part of the process.
Oh, and he’s optimistic that humanity will 'make it'... it just might require a little more respect for the past, deep self inquiry and a few less fences.
45 Natural Harry on cooking, collaboration and (anti)consumerism.
07 Mar 2021
00:51:10
Hey multi-passionate peeps! Here's a chick who's notorious for turning every hobby into a jobbie and doing it pretty darn brilliantly.
Harriet Birrell, aka. Natural Harry, is a serial entrepreneur who specialises in healthy, conscious, creative businesses with heart -- and today we're quizzing her about her process.
Harry shares her intuitive approach to business and life, maintaining a flexible schedule that allows for creativity, evolving projects to align with her values (even if that means shutting them down) and finding success despite 'not having a business brain'.
This open-water-swimming, tiny-house-dwelling, deliciously-self-deprecating woman is a breath of fresh air in a world of slick brands and brazen confidence. Down-to-earth all the way.
SHOW NOTES
Her free range farm childhood with veggie gardens, camping trips, paddock picnics
Maintaining complexity in creative avenues rather than falling into simplicity
Never wanting to be boxed by one career choice
The struggle of defining what you do
The value of a morning routine
Box breathing to reset overwhelm
Acknowledging your future self when building your day
The power of self depreciation and putting your imperfections on show
The hypocrisy of owning a retail shop despite it being an ethical purchase
The value of keeping high quality things in circulation rather than perpetuating consumption
Not being the expert
Sharing her knowledge and asking others to make it their own
Creating her books and then using them like everyone else who buys them
The short termism of fulfilling ourselves with anything other than deep personal satisfaction
Daily habits: dry body brushing
Judgement: do it less!
Collaboration is key. Even as an entity in your own right, we need others around us to make it all come to life.
Tales of her three businesses
Living close to the ocean and surrounded by nature
Building community connections; how, why and what
Lassooing her entrepreneurial spirit
Taking risks by accident; finding success without a business brain
The bad habit of turning her hobbies into a business
If living in a permaculture village piques your interest, listen up!
Global permaculture leader Morag Gamble joins us today from her home in Crystal Waters, one of Australia’s best known eco villages, sharing her wisdom on all things intentional communities, human cooperation, non-human relationships and permaculture ethics.
Morag is candid about financials, telling us about how she’s achieved her debt-free set up while exploring alternative pathways for those who don’t have the means to ‘buy’ their utopia.
A truly inspiring, long-form convo with one of Australia’s greatest holistic thinkers.
SHOW NOTES
Her life in the Southern Queensland eco village, Crystal Waters
Living surrounded by the ‘commons’
Cohabitating with wildlife
Designing water systems, community, mutual aid, electricity systems
Her transition from the suburbs to a life of permaculture practice via her eco pilgrimage which included: Gaia Ecology, localism and living a sustainable life in Ladakh India.
Unschooling herself so she could homeschool her children
The secondary impact of Covid on developing nations
Working with refugee settlements to build permaculture skills and resilience
How young women in refugee settlements are being impacted by Covid
Beginning women's cooperatives to supply the basics; soap, sanitary pads, clothes, seed saving.
Earth care, people care, fair share
How much is enough and how much could we share with others?
Creating ripple effects
The sheer practivism of permaculture
Why “they" is "we”
Accepting the constant evolution of your role within your community
Giving yourself permission to become an ambassador for the change you want to see
Personal growth - if you find yourself in a lot of goop, perhaps its time to assess how you interact with people?
How she got her start financially
Purposefully building her house in small, affordable pods using discounted timber to avoid ever borrowing and allow for adaptation
The freedom of having no debt
Collective economies that generate shared ownership and responsibility
How a “poverty” filled community can live as though they are incredibly “rich" by a simple change of lens
Breaking the consumption pattern by considering how resources can be accessed alternatively
The global stronghold of permaculture which is rarely seen by the mainstream media
Spreading permaculture ambassadors across the world to ensure this gentler existence can spread far and wide fast and then coming back.
“The difference that makes a difference.”
Defining success by being energised by what you do.
Creating boundaries to ensure the bills are paid and balance can be achieved
43 Tricia Hogbin is the barefoot, bush-wandering, do-less shaman we need right now!
21 Feb 2021
00:57:17
Have you spent much time in the bush on your own?
Do you listen to your heart when making life's big decisions?
What about social media -- ever given it the flick?
This conversation with Tricia Hogbin of little eco footprints might inspire you to do more of all three.
Tricia lives with her husband and daughter in a downscaled shipping container, and while her “husband earns the money, she earns their resilience”.
She takes her cues from Mother Nature and the moon, and knows the power of taking a breather, slowing down and seeking answers by turning inwards.
With a good dose of open and healthy conversation about the life stages of women , all things moon cycles, shamanic witchcraft and spending time alone in the bush, this might just be the conversation all women need to hear to inspire that curious path of listening to one's heart.
SHOW NOTES
Avoiding the debt trap
Childhood commitment to protecting nature
Obscene naive materialism where consumption is dictating our choices
Nature connection gatherings for women, focus on slowing down, tuning into inner self, ritual
Barefoot bushwalking, women’s circles
Living a life by the cycles of the moon
Experiencing a wilderness solo
Throwing others opinions to the wind
Stepping away from the grip of social media & taking a six month sabbatical
Having the same rules for online communications as we do in the real world
Avoiding eco anxiety in kids
Raising children who are resilient, creative and courageous
Reframing hypocrisy as an opportunity for change
Shamanic Womancraft: reconnecting with the earth seasons and the lunar cycles. “A way to facilitate healing by reclaiming our feminine knowledge.”
Taking a midlife gap year
Facing menopause
Pre Menstural Supervision
Maiden, Mother, Maga, Crone
“The deeper the journey, the more inwards I face and the smoother the road out in front.”
Seeking time with wise elders
Taking time in the forrest for wild solitude to create a clear vision and gift yourself time
The beauty of being uncomfortable and inconvenienced
Turning the volume of others down so we can listen to our wise hearts
42 Charlie Arnott on reverence, ritual and regenerative everything
14 Feb 2021
00:57:44
Charlie Arnott is an eighth generation Aussie farmer, educator, regenerative ag advocate, podcast host, wellness dude and pretty darn enlightened dad in his spare time.
For all that, there was a time Charlie wasn’t such a conscious operator. His early farming career was characterised by all the conventional stuff; synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, a high input/output model, and a bitter ongoing battle against nature.
Today, he shares the epiphanies that led him to where he is today -- an award-winning biodynamic farmer who lives and breathes regenerative principles -- plus a veritable polyculture of stories, struggles and holistic thinking. A thought-provoking conversation with a visionary fella.
SHOW NOTES
A blessed country childhood with a high bar for work ethic and a deep appreciation of farming
Back on the farm from 1997, questioning the congruence of his values with his farming practices
Interrogating chemical use, increased understanding in human health.
“Once you’ve learned other ways of doing things, you can’t unlearn them, and I was searching for something to “go towards”. I had a new set of KPIS including ecology, well being, sense of purpose."
Building a new community of intuitive, curious land managers.
Changing the paddock between your ears!
Why people are mean when they are scared.
If you don’t have a few enemies, you're not having a good go.
Making decisions through the lens of seven generations.
Making the legacy attractive enough for the next generation to see it as desirable.
“My sense of compassion and gratitude for the paddocks in my care is immense.”
Practices that are ritualistic and foster a sense of reverence for our surroundings
Engaging with the essence of our biome.
Why we need to keep our food coming from places that are as close to the natural world as possible.
Accepting those with different filters and ethics.
Are plants sentient beings?
Why using your credit card to abdicate responsibility for your actions isn't enough.
The joy of not being an expert.
Why it's OK to judge your former self but never others.
A day in the life of Charlie Arnott
Journaling for clarity and gratitude
“Success is the confluence of preparation and opportunity”.
Get to know the wild, wise and wonderful Steph Phillips (aka Green and Growing Things) who's living the simple life in rural Tassie.
Steph shares her four year transition from “Stiletto Steph” to “Simple Steph”, now raising three nature-loving wildlings in a frugal, seasonal and rhythmic fashion that's our kind of inspirational.
In this slow paced and honest convo, Steph talks about everything from making paint from foraged materials to self-compassion, community bonds and her love/hate relationship with social media.
One of those positive and affirming conversations that'll make you feel a whole lot better about the world. Listen in.
SHOW NOTES
Raising wildlings
From having a purpose-built shoe wardrobe to her current life
The influence of Sir David Attenborough in kicking off her life changes
Bedding down small changes before you leap to the next change
The importance of hibernation time: read, think, sit in order to gain strength for the busy times
Helping kids fall in love with the earth
Avoiding comparison-itis with really strong boundaries on social media
Why we need to stay connected to self, our surrounds, the natural world
The ‘say and do gap’. The power of leading by example and sitting in your crap.
Guiding children with the mantra: “Use your manners and trust your heart.”
Moving to Tassie four years ago
A day in the life of a family of five who are living intentionally and simply
Creating a farm of ‘pets’
Natural activities for kids: foraging, paint-making, collections
Forcing yourself to see the beauty in things; to stop, observe and give them the reverence they deserve.
The delight of writing a book that fosters creativity and curiosity
Being kind to ourselves despite feeling the weight of hypocrisy
Participating in things that are out of our comfort zones; womens circles, chanting groups
Everyone has a story
Treating your phone like the inanimate object that it is
40 Jess Scully on politics, inclusivity and and elusive utopia
31 Jan 2021
00:36:46
Even though Jess Scully is Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney, that doesn't stop her using emojis in official communications or wearing Converse sneakers to important meetings.
That's why we love her. She's a bit of a rebel, and makes a helluva lot of sense.
Jess is a pollie on a mission to encourage agency of thought and diverse voices that are heard in all their humanness. She cheers for inclusivity and creativity, sustainability and community. All things Futuresteading.
As a published author, mother, politician and relentless advocate for creating a better world, she's quick to acknowledge her ‘invisible’ supporters and vulnerabilities with words that are strong, true and fair.
While politics doesn't always attract such visionary empaths, Sydneysiders are lucky to have Jess on their side. Listen in for her deliciously actionable advice on how to be a force for good in your local community.
SHOW NOTES
Her optimistic childhood filled with wonder
Growing up with the idea that she deserved to have her voice heard
Why she thought local government might be something she did in retirement but why the time was suddenly NOW
Using emojis in official communication
Contributing to a more representative, inclusive community
Bringing a human lens that doesn’t exclude people to politics
How do we bring other voices to the table?
Speaking to governments in a way that gets heard
Working with the system to bring change via feedback
The power of supporting initiatives; not just endlessly knocking efforts
Building invisible support infrastructures
Transformative helpers on the sidelines
The toxic adversarial nature of political life which makes it harder to build a fairer world
Sharing vulnerabilities and being honest
The amazing people who fill her with hope via their commitment to positive change
Standing up for the elements of our culture which are critical but not always economically viable
Avoiding arguments that end up back at economics rather than the truly valuable stuff
The constant tussle between the things that are the guts of society and the daily references to GDP
Why her utopia is a place that values and includes everyone
Universal basic services says “let's fund things people need such as transport, housing education -- in a way that speaks to individual regions”
Creating “enabling” architecture
Creating a culture of inclusivity
Not living our lives as though we are disempowered and disconnected, but present and with agency
165 Courtney Young - Changing The Last Local Food Frontier: Grain - Summer Days Thowbacks 2025
05 Jan 2025
00:57:30
Do you know where your grain comes from... the farmers name... how they grow it? Woodstock flour are doing their level best to change the last frontier via the power of building relationships and connecting. Join Jade and Courtenay as they get gritty on grains and hear why we need to value its diversity and regionality just like we do wine or cheese.
39 Alexx Stuart taking a low tox route to success!
24 Jan 2021
01:04:52
Some people are born storytellers. And some of those people have magical, lyrical voices that transport you instantly.
Such is Alexx Stuart. You might already know her as the wellness maven and recipe Queen behind Low Tox Life, but this convo takes the story further -- back to childhood, right to the heart of who she is, and everything she's learned about life as a changemaker.
Alexx shares how her city-based life growing food on her balcony and making consciously considered choices has led to social success. In her words: “Social success is about doing more for the world than what it gives to us. Deeply held success really comes when it’s not just about looking after yourself but when you’ve committed to something bigger."
Join us in this convo about questioning authority, building community, supporting mental health and making change in joyous, positive and peaceful ways.
SHOW NOTES
The influence of her dynamic, empowered french mum
The 80s convenience culture was actually code for “make us profit, make us money”
Music taught her social justice and inspired a connection to things bigger than herself
Avoiding a “desperate anger” and instead creating justice peacefully
Never being afraid to take yourself into a healthy, respectful debate - debate smart
Listening to different points of view
The strong moral compass of artists who feel the pain of humanity
How sickness kickstarted her journey
The impact of a hyper developed and adapted food system
The value of challenging authorities and becoming a system changer positively
“I just couldn’t believe how many aspects of our life are not set up for us to thrive”
Why looking after your mental health is a great place to start
Why change is a lifelong journey and there are no medals
A low tox life is about Food, Body, Mind and Home
“Every time I make it a fight, I want to retract it. For me it has to be a peaceful way forward.”
Working in the overlaps
Setting boundaries
Leading from the front with optimistic joyfulness
A week in the life of Alexx Stuart
Setting your compass
Channeling a “feeling” for the day
Doing one thing you’d be disappointed not to complete each day, first.
The gene snip that thwarts your body from mounting an immune response to black mould spores
How chronic inflammation has resulted in chronic illness and heightened by electro magnetics
Setting a low bar to ensure self compassion
Being tuned into something bigger than ourselves to maintain momentum
Identifying the change maker within
Constructing your life in the city that feels more villagey
Taking your shoes off and reactivating your mental and physical health
Rewriting success from within, connecting to a deep sense of gratitude
These deliciously non-dogmatic Tasmanians treat us to a personal account of financial, professional and psychological transition, how they reduced their energy consumption by a massive 60%, what they're doing to engage their street and community, and why to have hope in the next generation of considerate and creative human beings.
SHOW NOTES
Tapping into kids' smarts to solve the problems in front of us
Building friendship networks that appreciate your values and support your efforts
Waste free gift ideas
Building a waste-free mindset and habits
Taking a fast leap rather than a slow limp; doing it all at once with clear intention
Why the permaculture principle of “produce no waste” is the most accessible
Doing a climate impact survey
The difference between recycling and downcycling
The burden of “the system”: the role of government vs. the role of individuals to make lifestyle changes
Why it’s important that those of us in positions of affluence take the responsibility and make change to our lifestyle.
Adopting lifestyle choices that buck the norm: homeschooling, homebirthing, food production, second hand clothing.
Avoiding burnout from community commitment
Engaging people across socio-economic lines; keeping things small, achievable and gentle.
The power of conversations
Reframing success away from ‘bigness’ and towards smaller measures that reflect day to day existence
Learning how to forage, holiday simply, buy second hand, live away from consumptive past times
#52climatesolutions
Seeking joy by being in the bush, appreciating the diversity in nature, seeing small and slowing down and observing
Being part of rather than apart from the natural world
E37 Anna the Urban Nanna talks Rental Permaculture
13 Dec 2020
00:54:35
Could jam be your gateway to lost skills? It was for Anna, aka The Urban Nanna, who started making jams and preserves as an act of self care, only to end up inspiring thousands of people to reclaim forgotten skills of frugality and everyday resourcefulness.
Anna's greatest joy is watching those around her experience aha! moments, and has a guiding belief that change comes from a strong and recognised personal intent.
If anyone can get you excited to exercise practical skills and community building -- even in the smallest city rental -- it's Anna, with her upfront honesty and acceptance of mistakes.
So join us in this raucous chat with a truly kindred futuresteader, where you'll gain serious solidarity and life smarts between peals of laughter.
SHOW NOTES
The oral tradition of passing on skills that we used to know intuitively.
Why aha! moments are solid rewards for someone who loves to teach.
Jam as the gateway to rediscovering lost skills.
Life with Asperger's -- and why it's probably a superpower.
How to get over the fear factor and embrace mistakes.
Futuresteading in a rental. What’s your style? Being honest about your needs and the art of having an upfront conversation with your landlord.
Creating community where you are: fostering relationships via sharing, groundedness and kindness.
Creating a community corner that people clamber to connect with.
Creating a glut of giving. Sharing the abundance, sharing toys, sharing books.
Foraging in your own neighbourhood. Putting otherwise wasted food to good use and sharing it with the community.
The importance of thinking about your place in the broader natural context.
The biological imperative for success is to survive, thrive and reproduce.
Pulling away from the socially acceptable view of success.
Reawakening the inner child.
Thinking hard about what you believe in and making changes to align with it.
Discovering what drives you.
Where do you begin? Starting something because it honestly interests you.
Anna's happy place as a bird nerd and connecting with wild beaches or calm meadows.