Explore every episode of the podcast Futuresteading
Dive into the complete episode list for Futuresteading. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
Rows per page:
50
1–50 of 215
Title
Pub. Date
Duration
Angela Clifford - Long Term Thinking in a Short-Term World, Empowering Food Citizens for Change
31 Aug 2025
00:55:41
Today we’re pulling up a chair with Angela Clifford — farmer, food activist & founder of Eat New Zealand — to talk about the stuff that really matters: food, culture, community & the future our kids will inherit. Together we wander through big ideas & very real feelings — from the responsibility of feeding a nation to the grief & hope that come with caring deeply for place. Permaculture principles, family dynamics, natural systems & the wisdom that lives beyond humans all get a look-in. This one’s about finding steadiness in uncertain times & remembering that the way we eat, grow & gather can be an anchor for resilience, connection & joy.
196 Jaclyn Crupi - Getting messy outside for birds, bees & butterflies (+ anything else that wants to move in!)
24 Aug 2025
00:55:52
Spring is peeking through here in Southern Australia, and today we’re heading into the garden — but not just for veggies. We’re going a little wild for the birds, bees, and butterflies. Our guest, Jaclyn Crupi, lifelong gardener and many times author, grew up with her nonna and nonno’s hands-in-the-dirt wisdom. These days, she’s transformed her patch beyond just a productive veggie garden into a thriving sanctuary that welcomes not just humans, but insects, birds, fungi — the whole backyard ecosystem. Whether you’ve got a big block, a small suburban yard, or even just a balcony, Jaclyn’s here to share how messy gardening and even a ‘lizard lounge’ can turn any space into a refuge for wildlife.
We chat about why those with their hands in the dirt are leaving a legacy, telling stories though our gardening & why we need messy gardens now more than ever.
195 Jade Miles - How Small Circles & Shared Rituals Can Change the World
17 Aug 2025
01:02:51
It’s about time Jade Miles takes the mic so we can pick her brain and her heart about ‘huddling’ for the future of all! We chat about what is our ecological work to do, our soul work to do as we come together in all kinds of communities.
We decolonise our minds by moving into our hearts: away from extraction and spectacle, toward opulence of the ordinary- soil under nails, soup shared warm, shared conversations around a fire, singing songs as ritual. We name the practices that bind us: huddle, muddle, cuddle- messy, tender, and profoundly effective.
Jade’s new book, Huddle, is a field guide for this future: small circles doing big things. Gather often. Trade skills. Move through initiation. Tell truer stories. Let the elders speak. Listen deeply. Make a ritual. Define your enoughness. In a time that worships scale, choose closeness. In a culture that fears the muddle, trust in the huddles!.
Because the way we will change the planet is not by shouting across the void but by huddling in, shoulder-to-shoulder, until courage becomes contagious and care becomes the norm.
194 Tanned Hides, Bark Brews & the Wild Within - with Will & Eva from Wild Beings
10 Aug 2025
00:59:29
Ever wondered what lines a deer’s stomach? Or how to turn bark into tincture—or tea into a gateway to your primal self?
Meet Will and Eva: barefoot, leather-clad rewilders who traded ‘normal’ for firelight, foraging, and full-blown nature immersion. I first met them in a smoky tent at the Off Grid Living Festival—tea in hand, bird calls in the air, and stories thick as eucalyptus sap.
Since then, they've taught rewilding workshops at Black Barn Farm and reminded us all just how useless strategic planning feels when someone’s casually tanning a hide next to you.
Will’s a youth worker, Eva braved Alone Australia, and together they run Wild Beings—a living, breathing invitation to reconnect with the wildness written in our bones.
This one’s part campfire, part gut punch, part call to remember. Let's get barefoot!
193 Jane Hillard "Enoughness" - Do you have it? - Winter Windbacks 2025
27 Jul 2025
00:52:09
When did having twin basins and three toilets become the norm? As an architect who bucks the idea of bigger-is-better Jane Hilliard uses the principle of “Enoughness” as a design principle for the built environment. Its better for both the natural environment and the people around us. It allows us to be rich in ways that matter instead of buying into the idea that grandeur will make us happy. For her 'enough' looks like going out into her backyard supermarket garden picking something and cooking it. Its also having outdoor space & quiet, unstructured time to think. Guided by the principle of “enoughness,” she manages her work load to keep her energy output within her own capacity while meeting her modest need for resources to sustain her family and business.
Bringing her love of arts and social justice together Sidestepping stress and money in the architecture design world. Ensuring sustainability isn't just an add-on rather than core to design Why the endless pursuit of “more” and better is relentless and pointless Asking “what is enough?” starts with your values and how you want to feel.
“I ask myself: What is enough work to sustain me, my creativity, my staff and the financial resources we need to sustain my practice.”
What "enough" looks like for her high-school age children.
“I enjoy causing a bit of a stir…not in a way that’s shaming anyone…but by pushing back on the system, not individuals.” Working a 9 day fortnight Small rituals like, morning coffee, starting the day outside, growing food, being present with her children. Normalising messy, lived in homes which change with the seasons and as its occupants get older. Why central heating has loosened family ties Living in a smaller space with less resources helps us develop negotiation skills and foster connections. Simplify life by starting with one thing. How much are you packing into your week, or your year?
“The more work I take on, the less time and energy I have for all the other projects we have already, and I’ll enjoy them a little less too.”
"We have everything we need to go forward into the future. It's not about gaining new knowledge or new skills or new technology or new tools. It's about stripping things back and getting rid of a lot of stuff." We need to be grateful for how much the earth gives us and not to take too much. Our culture is dominated by growth and seeking opportunity. The desire for more can be part of our status and identity. People are trying to meet their needs with things instead of meaning. A mentality that “I’ve worked hard and I deserve it” is a strong focus for Jane's clients. Just because "you've worked hard and deserve it" doesn’t mean you should aim for the biggest and shiniest. "We stay in tents and shacks when we go away, why can’t we bring this spirit into our own house? How about an outdoor kitchen…why not?"
192 Helena Norberg Hodge - Localism that heals & creates oneness. Winter Windbacks 2025
20 Jul 2025
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.
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.
191 Rosemary Morrow - a lifetime of global permaculture service - Winter Windbacks 2025
13 Jul 2025
00:47:15
Summary Akin to a cuppa while flicking through photo albums, this conversation is rich with stories of her lived experiences across every continent & through many decades. This wisdom holder has offered her life in service by knowledge sharing. A much respected permaculture educator, her foundation is science based, heart felt & relational in every way. Her practical generosity has contributed to refugee camps in war torn countries and her commitment to empowering communities without becoming a guru is refreshing.
Adaptation principles - Observe carefully, backup functions, seeing solutions, being prepared to make change & noticing Is water more destructive than drought? Creating a culture where people are comfortable to listen to their intuition The critical value of eco literacy - taught in childhood but forgotten in adulthood Building confidence in ourselves to enact change Operating as a community rather than individuals who are side by side Looking for change outside of ‘lobby groups’ The power of the collective rather than individual leaders Intuition is when you know something from a prior sensory input but haven't made it conscious yet - this relies on eco literacy and enables us to come up with solutions Her Vietnamese experience - connecting traditional knowledge with permaculture principles using the pyramid approach of community teaching Removing guru’ism by teaching locally and inbuilding principles that ensure the original teacher is no longer needed because the knowledge is in the community Her scientific background has ensured she is less inclined towards whims, rather its focussed on critical thought Making people eco literate by starting with a focus on the fundamentals Why permaculture is not western middle class - it is adaptable to traditional knowledge? The role of traditional ritual and custom in building community - the Songs of Community Singing to recognise climate, topography, people, direction, acknowledging the power and might of the natural over humans - keeps us small and in a sense of wonder Reading plants as secular or sacred Ritual is acknowledge of our small scope, observation and awe Seeing permaculture as a jigsaw where we can take the pieces we need for the places we are in Permaculture is not an armchair discipline - it’s a discipline of service through knowledge sharing We are all as poor as the poorest person The power of permaculture in giving individuals agency and the ability to bring change
190 Joost Bakker - The Darling of Waste Free Living - Winter Windbacks 2025
06 Jul 2025
00:29:46
We know that Western culture lives excessively, endlessly seeking the newest and shiniest new thing. Its shocking that 40% of our food goes to waste, one third of our building materials are never even used. But this way of life will be short lived and thankfully being wasteful is now on the nose and cool cats like Joost are making waves by making junk UBER COOL. What can we do to create a new way forward in what he describes as the most exciting time in human history?
Keeping family as number one Keeping it real with family to ensure they are present His journey through waste which began using other peoples junk Spending his spare time in junkyards collecting and using other peoples waste Even the poster boy doesn't get everything right - examples of things that haven't worked For every project that gets up there are 3 or 4 which didn't - that’s having a go! And through the Process we discover a new way forward Attracting like minded people to build a community and deliver amazing projects Showcasing the innovation and vast knowledge that exists in this country Creating binless hospitality businesses Curating the message for living waste free so that people understand it. Considering materials based on their ability to be recycled Living in the most exciting time in human history Getting creative to find solutions that allow us to continue our existing lives with minimal compromise There's something mentally wrong with us when we endlessly chase the next, new, shiny, big thing. Being properly nourished and connected to the outdoors satiated our desires and replace our desire for STUFF. Using plants to support our sleep Reverting to primitive practices to reconnect to ourselves Starting our day with simple, natural world practices If we’ve got 3 hours to be on social media, surely we’ve got time to make our everyday actions more intentional. We feel great after gardening not just because its sensorially beautiful but because you are breathing in microbiomes Observation is a lost trait we need to rebuild His fascination with the perfect sized branch for birds All his buildings are covered in 8 mil rio mesh because it's perfect for the birds If you really want to understand why he makes the decisions he does then check out his instagram pages
189 Nat Wilmott - Living the Dream, Her story! Winter Windbacks 2025
29 Jun 2025
00:56:50
This homeschooling mum of three spends her days foraging, growing, swapping & upskilling all in the name of continuing to live her version of normal in an abnormal world where we've lost touch with our food, medicine & the natural world. After taking her time with her families transition to this way of life, her newfound confidence & conviction ensures she won't be told what to do by big business or have her opinions changed by corporations. Although not all plain sailing-she shares valuable insights into the bumpy but ultimately rewarding path she's been on. "Living in a cushioned culture is limiting in our ability to share skills & share knowledge"
We Talked About Eating meat that you’ve met - being responsible for the whole life cycle Stepping stones to this way of life - starting small, with what you’ve got Learning from failure as you scale The fallacy of being self sufficient Foraging, bartering & selling excess of what you do grow to access the things you don’t grow Why being dogmatic isn't always the answer to the long game Homeschooling - learning happens everywhere, everyday Being led by kids & their natural interest areas Building a family rhythm around the personal needs of everyone in the family Rebuilding normal Why it’s difficult to be a people pleaser but stay true to yourself Learning to trust your honesty will be supported & not knocked It’s hard to live your normal in an abnormal world - the way we eat, shop treat people Education of self is the first step in shifting towards taking agency Why food was her on-ramp to understanding how to make her own decisions Accepting that a shift in our lives will take time - we each need to take it as we are ready Transitioning via new skills & a new mindset Letting this way of living be a lifetime of work Learning one skill and mastering it each year Using herbs to heal now and in the future Learning to get used to people not agreeing with how she lives her life Making mistakes in safe places while you learn Learning how to manage microclimates Building an annual seasonal rhythm to ensure balance 450sq m of intensive growing space for a family of five 300 sq metres managed by the kids Water bath canning, dehydration Collecting food waste every week by salvaging food from mainstream supermarkets to supplement her families food Why she is opting for a house cow not a house goat There’s always next year….. Learning to forgive your short comings Connecting without belonging How not going to a school was a disadvantage While she feels at home she doesn't feel like she belongs Defying the odds of ‘surviving this life’ & thriving Finding ways to connect with people who have different ideals The value of relying on your neighbours - creating a sense of place by calling on your neighbours Things only move at the speed of trust & a willingness to push through the awkward. Sta
188 Sarah Wilson - Having less F%$# s to give - Winter Windbacks 2025
22 Jun 2025
00:53:48
Described as 'all striving no arriving…' Sarah thrives in the early stages of a movement - feeling her way into the zeitgeist of now & unpacks in ways that resonate with reality. Ultimately driven by curiosity & shunning growth, she talks about Wild Activism as a responsibility of the current age with agency in tact.
Having less fucks to give about speaking her mind & with a bipolar superpower, she shares how she is unlearning & returning to humanity to navigate out of a spiritual PTSD, simultaneously saving but living the fuck out of life’, and why she is off to Paris
Taking her cue from International women of strength
Owning her intensity
Has the lucky country become more racist and bigoted?
Why laid back Aussies don’t want their comfort boat rocked by the reality of the less wealthy.
Why Aussie’s are aching to not be the anti intellectual country down South
Feeling into where the pain points are for the humans around her
The story behind donating 100% of the I Quit Sugar profit
Her conscious decision to live rather than take her life by stepping into the option of shedding everything and letting go of ALL the things she was attached to.
Setting a 5 year goal to be content w not being beholden to the endless desire for more.
Trodding her ego into the ground & the outcome thrusting her into growth
Every time she releases her grip & lets the flow of life back in - growth prevails.
Learning to get engaged & enraged about the climate crisis
Turn anxiety into action
We live in a culture where discomfort & inconvenience thrive yet we feel alive when we are on the edge & pushed out of our comfort zone.
187 Cade McConnell - Living With Intention, Initiation & More Earth In The Kitchen
08 Jun 2025
00:58:40
Fire has long been a revered force, respected for its ceremonial holding, practical contribution to feeding, sterilising, warming, lighting and yarning around. These days though, few of us interact with fire regularly despite it connecting us to our ancestors and gently reminding us of what it means to be human.
Off the back of tragic circumstances when he was just 16, todays guest Cade Mcconnell, intentionally side stepped the drug fuelled, party filled scene that often lures late teens early 20 year men and instead went in search of what it meant to be a man. He found instead, ceremonial fires, yoga, men's circles, his feelings and what it means to operate in an intentional and sacred way.
He’s built his life around this way of being and in todays conversation we scratch below the mere mention of things like vision quests and sacred weddings and really unpack what it is to move through the world like this.
For Cade - much of this begins with food, where it was grown it, how its prepared, who shares it and he says that by giving himself the git of making food intentional, it has rewritten his story and the rhythm of his life.
As a retreat caterer, who uses claypots for his cooking Cade says this way of preparing food is fundamentally about being in relationship with plants, clay and fire which is also the name of his book.
His mission is to bring a little earth into every kitchen.
186 Elspeth Hay - Feeding ourselves with trees + singing our way to a new culture
01 Jun 2025
01:01:05
"Living as modern humans we are disconnected, out of place and don't belong in the same way as other species"
"If you're feeling called to do something larger than you - you should follow that"
Summary
Todays guest Elspeth Hay experienced a rewriting of all she had known when when one day she was grappling with the frustration that the area she calls home didn't have the ability to create more small scale, localised food systems because they were landlocked by the ocean and surrounded by established Oak forests. Until one day her belief and her story was challenged when she learned that we can eat acorns. From there stories she’d believed her whole life began to unravel. Not just about acorns but about the way humans have pattered ourselves to our current day reality.
This process led her to write a book titled feed us with trees. The journey of the book creation took her on an ancestral tour from New England USA to the UK, introduced her to indigenous wisdom keepers, gave her the courage to challenge the system we know to be true and hold empathy for the courageous wisdom knowledge holders that have kept nature based skills and interaction alive.
Elspeth is a is a wonderful story teller and with this skill alone I'm sure she is one of those humans who we need as the bridge to wherever it is we are headed.
"Our story is totally made up & doesn't follow any natural laws so we can look to other influences to rewrite it'
185 Simon Mustoe - Valuing A Whale At $3 Million to Survive The Next 100 Years!
25 May 2025
00:59:33
“We’ve lived fantastic lives because we’ve taken for granted the ecological damage we’ve done. Now we owe a debt"
Well respected ecologist Simon Mustoe has written a new book How to Survive the Next 100 Years: Lessons from Nature. In its pages there's a definite sense of encouragement because ultimately Simon believes we are already seeing indicators of monumentally important shifts in our relationship with earth.
In todays conversation we tackle the dichotomy between wisdom & knowledge, deciding that “It doesn't necessarily mean how much you know - if you don't have the wisdom to interpret it & you can’t do anything worthwhile with it.
We discover the economic value of a whale when we really unpack what it does for the world & we conclude that the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of the most important conservation books of all time.
“Ecosystem complexity makes it abundantly clear that we will NEVER understand everything completely.”
The wider impact of saving wildlife in our own backyards
Government enabling communities to act as custodians & not corporations
How animals make ecosystems work & the impact on our daily lives
“We’re not in control of anything & we lack a comprehensive understanding of what it is we now need to do.”
How 700 koalas were killed by a unilateral decision made behind closed doors.
Valuing the human response to damaged nature.
11 x increase in the amount of funding available in the last decade for nature based solutions
The localised opportunities for people to contribute to the livelihood that they belong to
Bringing the voices of many for co-designed outcomes that leave legacy’s
Environmental accounting; a transitionary solution to us becoming more connected to the ecosystem
“The decline in our loss of species has had a greater economic impact than all the other climate issues combined”.
Community led planning can unlock potential from nature based solutions.
Being in relationship with ourselves, with our landscapes would take us back to the thing we know how to do well and become PART OF the functioning environment
184 Matt Defina - Rethinking Purpose: From Lost to Liberated
18 May 2025
01:00:32
Have you ever had that moment where you question - but there MUST be another way?
Well in this conversation, Hayley and Matt Defina explore the journey of finding purpose and reprogramming our outdated ways or patterns to reach a more meaningful way of living.
Matt shares the importance of emotional expression in mental health and his personal experiences that led him to create Another Way, a company focused on intentional living. They discuss the societal pressures surrounding purpose, the impact of environment, and the need for self-care amidst life's demands. The conversation emphasises that purpose is not a destination but a continuous process of growth and connection with oneself and the community.
In this conversation, Matthew Defina and Hayley explore the intricate relationship between love, fear, and personal growth. They discuss the importance of confronting inner fears, the balance between being and doing, and the necessity of community in fostering individual growth.
183 Elle Jenkins - Creating a 'Seed to Packet' Business with Australian Medicinal Herbs
11 May 2025
00:55:40
Do you fancy the idea of growing your own medicinal herbs for tinctures & tea Todays guest Elle from Australian Medicinal Herbs took the plunge following a career sidestep when she was diagnosed with PTSD & replaced a 17 year career in the police force with a seed to packet business that slowly but surely healed her trauma, engaged her girls & now helps people all over Australia. Today she shares her unfolding story & offers practical guidance & wizened encouragement to get growing in order to take agency of your own health through the potency of healing herbs.
“Life is change - all the small steps you take lead you to another door or another window”
"Herbal medicine is slow medicine & our bodies have adapted to this for generations. Our bodies have certain responses to plants that they don’t to other medicines but we need to be connected & not detached"
182 Anna Nanna - EVERYDAY Permaculture for EVERYBODY!
04 May 2025
00:59:29
Rarely in life do you meet someone who moves through the world in complete service of others, filling their cup through small but regular actions that offer the world gifts of time, seeds, toilet paper, knowledge. Todays guest is just this person, intrinsically generous…even going so far as to say she stores her excess yields in other humans which in turn proliferates the generosity bug & reap returning acts of kindness as gifted lemon slice & moving boxes.
Today we get to the bottom of what it looks like to blend permaculture principles into your life as a lifelong renter & we talk in earnest about the challenges of this prospect too & why its only getting harder to break the housing realities of so many in Australia, UK & the US.
We dive into why its so important to advocate for yourself when you are - in her words ‘neuro spicy’ & of course no conversation with the urban Nanna would be complete without a thorough rundown on all things foraging!!!
This chat coincides with the launch of Annas newly released book “Everyday Permaculture” which might well become one of those books that you find on the shelf in every household - it definitely SHOULD Be!
“Being so deeply steeped in capitalism makes it hard to ask people to become a permie not a consumer”
“I never expect any member of community to be doing better than others - everyone brings something to the table & we need to value that diversity to see all of us thrive”
181 Nic Warner - Awakening Through Rites of Passage Work & Relationships
27 Apr 2025
00:58:33
"We live in a society where uninitiated men grow up"
In this conversation, Hayley and Nick Warner explore the profound themes of transformation, relationships, and the importance of rites of passage in personal growth. They discuss the challenges of authenticity, the journey back to self, and the cost of inauthenticity in life and relationships. Nick shares insights on the significance of responsibility in relationships, the role of fatherhood as a rite of passage, and the necessity of returning to the heart in a society driven by the mind. The dialogue emphasises the importance of community, mentorship, and the healing power of facing one's pain and fears.
Nic Warner is a father, a mentor, a rites of passage facilitator, and an expert in personal growth, he has helped countless individuals unlock their potential, navigate change, and create lives of purpose and fulfillment across the globe. He focuses on work for both the masculine and feminine, a tantric approach, with a particular passion for helping men break through their masks and step into their truest essence.
180 Adrian Black - Being In a State of Enquiry To Create Community & Raise the 'Numbness' Bar
21 Apr 2025
01:20:09
"What would it mean for us to start asking questions via embodied feelings rather than spreadsheets & rational outcomes…turn off our head and turn on our belly."
Adrian Black is fresh off the plane from 5 weeks of living in an intentional community - a program designed to create a transformative culture. He shares his experience of transferring from being a series of individuals operating in cohesion of each other to operating as a whole via emotional release ceremonies with tears, grief, joy, laughter & dancing.
He normalises 'cortisol crying' - metabolising to release deep emotions & reminds us that we have just two needs: belonging & authenticity. He has learnt to avoid ‘happiness’ & ‘perfectionism’- which are colonial constructs that set us up to fail and he is now focussed on actively bringing people together to celebrate with people, give gratitude & take the energy of the world to focus on something beautiful and worthwhile.
His final advice is to check in regularly on three things - how are your thoughts, your feelings & your body.
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.
177 Alice Irene Whittaker - Finding Seeds of Presence In The Woods
31 Mar 2025
00:48:54
"I could live a lifetime here and still be learning - it’s a relationship - the greatest relationship of my life"
Alice Irene Whitaker lives in a small cabin in the woods, is a mother of three, an author of the book “Homing" and host of the 'Reseed podcast, which is about rebuilding our relationship with nature.
Surrounded by creek, meadow, and forest, Alice Irene began a new lifelong journey of repairing her fractured relationship with both herself and the natural world. Dismantling a history of anorexia, obsessiveness, and workaholism, she decided to stop taking and start caretaking.
She shares how taking the leap to a life in a small cabin in the woods where seasons are apparent, repetition is a daily mantra and a shedding of her previous identity onto the forest floor has given her an opportunity to live a lifetime in her new landscape and still be learning from the outside world every day - she sees her surrounds as a relationship-the greatest relationship of her life.
176 Andrew Skeoch - Nature’s Symphony, A Journey Towards Deep Listening
23 Mar 2025
01:10:23
"We need to cultivate a culture of listening in society." But what does it truly mean to listen?
In this episode, we delve into the profound impact that sound can have on our lives as we speak with renowned sound recordist Andrew Skeoch. With his expertise in capturing the essence of nature through sound, Andrew shares his journey of deep listening, the importance of empathetic listening, and how it connects us to the natural world and one another.
Andrew, the author of Deep Listening, records breathtaking natural habitats from across the globe which have gained worldwide attention, with albums that attract tens of thousands of weekly streams on Spotify. His work has also featured in major films like Rabbit Proof Fence, The Jungle Book (2016), and the upcoming Force of Nature starring Eric Bana.
Our conversation delves into the evolution of a heart-centered society that values cooperation over unhealthy competition. Andrew highlights the importance of understanding nature as an ongoing process and discusses how human sensitivity plays a crucial role in shaping our societal values.
175 Claire Taylor - The Scottish Storyteller Connecting Farmers
17 Mar 2025
00:58:37
Claire is a multi generational Scottish beef farmer who says 'Ag has potency and potential to be a catalyst on the front line of climate catastrophe'.
As a Nuffield scholar 'exploring the scrutiny being placed on agriculture and how perceptions are changing', she embarked on a world research tour. While travelling, she fell in love with an Australian lad & now finds herself living in rural NSW. So after establishing a strong journalism career steeped in trust & long held relationships on home turf, she now finds herself on this wide brown land in the heat of summer without her networks & a need to rebuild a new life with people who she tells us are more laid back, more inclined to use humour dripping in sarcasm to navigate hard things & are exceptionally resilient.
“Leave judgements at the door & come without bias in order to communicate which is both talking but equally listening, we’ve all got to be prepared to change our mindsets”
“First gen farmers are more daring to have hard conversations & to really listen - they can be brave."
"For progress we need to think outside ag - and not just speak to ourselves."
"When will people other than farmers step into the food system & support the much needed potential for farming to be the potent ecological change making piece it is . Farmers cannot be all the things, they are best to be the land stewards but others need to take up the roles of advocating, supply chain development, consumer education, policy change & story telling"
The politics of agriculture - overshadowed by a growing disconnect between politicians in the cities & farmers in the country
Echo chambers are one of the biggest challenges in Ag. Its so important to look up & out to glean perspective on what's happening
We need more patience and understanding in ag because there are deep cultural beliefs & values that will need to shift before practice change can occur
Why its time for farmers to build trust for those who are telling their stories & playing other roles in the food system so we can broaden the scope for support
Ripping the bandaid off & beginning a new life in another country.
Settling her body into a new landscape]
Learning how to say yes to invitations
Learning to be vulnerable with new families and friends
Asking a new friend on a date - you’ll have different friendships at differnt times
The things we do for love - taken in by the boss’s girlfriend
174 Fleur Chambers - Riding the Waves of Life w the Essence of Presence
10 Mar 2025
00:58:11
"Creativity is a life force - the universe is inherently creative - once we realise it's not ours - it takes the ego out of it & encourages all of us to utilise it as a gift for the greater good"
Fleur Chambers is a best selling author, mama, philanthropist & of course a master meditator. Actually she is the creator of the free meditation app: The Happy Habit.
Her post partum experience was the catalyst for seeking another way of being in the world & now she positions meditation as something much larger than just supporting the individuals need as a circuit breaker & asks us to get curious about leaning into an emergent way of being & exploring our intentions without a sense of control and striving. We unpack the deep wisdoms of the inner voice - the voice of nature, of the earth, of our body.
We chat about the potency of parenting as an endless source of learning -importantly the value of dropping the expectation on everyone and replacing it with the essence of presence, learning to trust our own inner voice, opening the door on our potential & realising that growth is not about adding on but about peeling back & letting go.
She shares her theory that Creativity is an energy that doesn’t belong to us and is simply a gift to the world at that moment in time
In this conversation she encourages us to unlearn & relearn towards a new story...
"Its time for a new story - where self esteem & confidence is no longer a patriarchal, corporate, growth dominated paradigm…instead the ease comes from learning to listen, acknowledging traumas, shared humanity, cherish, protect & preserve"'
173 Valerie Ringland - Healing Through Indigenous Wisdom
02 Mar 2025
00:59:18
"The deepest trauma is disconnection from country."
What does it truly mean to heal? How can we reclaim our ancestral wisdom and break free from patterns of diseased thinking?
In this episode, we sit down with Valerie Ringland, a powerful voice in the world of Indigenous healing and restorative justice. Born on traditional Shawnee land in the U.S. and now living on Yuin Country in far southern NSW, Valerie brings a unique blend of Indigenous knowledge, and Western healing practices to her work. She’s the author of the transformative book "Healing Through Indigenous Wisdom," which offers 52 weeks of profound exercises designed to help us reconnect with ourselves, our land, and our lineage.
Valerie challenges us to reimagine cultural expression, confront our wounds head on, and see trauma not as a life sentence but as a spiritual calling. She invites us to explore shame, grief, and belonging as essential parts of our journey toward wholeness.
In this episode you will learn:
- The role of rituals, ceremonies, and ancestral connection in emotional well-being - How Indigenous wisdom offers powerful tools for self-discovery and community healing - And why "never enoughness" is a modern disease—and how to break free from it
Get ready for a thought-provoking conversation that will challenge your perspectives, touch the deepest parts of your heart, and inspire you to reconnect with your true essence.
172 Megan Dalla Camina - Empowering Women to Rise!!
24 Feb 2025
00:49:29
Megan has made it her life work to bring the voice of the feminine into our stories, workplaces, communities & ultimately our culture. Ensuring they are heard & have agency to do what we do so well - be women with feminine traits which are celebrated & valued. You'll be delighted to hear its not about minimising the power of men but allowing women to meet them in a place that they have long relished and together they can create a world no longer dominated by the patriachy.
Navigating a hard fought journey of finding her purpose & then having the courage to lean into it, Megan, now in her early 50s is committed to a life that enables women to rise. Author, single mum, business owner & now completing her PHD in women's spirituality - she is taking her leadership role to new heights.
In this conversation she talks about the seasons of life & places the idea that 'what is for you will never pass you'. She shares why change comes from the ground up in democratic environments, she offers tools for male allyship and insights into how & why women are rising. For such a powerhouse, it's reassuring to hear that her 'Enough' is what it is - and having peace in that.
171 Jason Fox - Casting Wizardry Spells On a Path For Humanity
17 Feb 2025
01:07:51
Its not every day you talk with a flaming locked, beard faced wizard. This one sees through the illusions of modernity & revels in an oscillating state of making progress through decay while genuinely attuning to the living systems in order to see our dire reality.
He attempts to embody our meta crises & seeks insights outside of mere numbers by going into the woods to 'just be'...and perhaps along the way he will experience a physiological quickening that offers hope.
He sees an undercurrent of people returning to ambiguity - warm provocations with room for textured, life filling conversation & he is building a relationship with dusk where in the liminal, he opens himself up to other intelligences & wisdoms, animacy & more than the human world.
He laments our loss of seasonal attunement & encourages us all to re-member (become a member of the earth) to reignite our presence & acuity to notice the small, more than the rational.
This wizard is indeed a wise orator & his words dance through the conversation like twinkling lights, sprinkling provocation that you may need to hear more than once.
170 Hayley Jessup - Stories From The Heart to Kickstart Season 11
09 Feb 2025
00:52:00
Meet Hayley - the whizz who usually sits in the editing suite of the Futuresteading pod is in the hot seat today...and a few other days actually...todays episode is the chance to get to know the voice behind a mini series within this season of the futuresteading pod we are calling Stories from the heart. Hayley has been the producer on the pod for the last 6 seasons and now we are introducing her to this side of mic. You'll love her!
From remote Alaskan cottages to inner city haunts, Hayley Jessup has been learning to live from the heart. Her journey has been visceral, gut led and has tapped a curiosity from deep inside her that she unpacks in todays conversation. It’s not just about earth shattering love, it’s about sliding into a comfortable place that stays true to you, your reason to be here and being sure of the work that is yours to do. Because you can and its right.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
164 Gabrielle Chan "We're all making it up" - Summer Days Throwback 2025
29 Dec 2024
00:51:52
Recorded just days after the Federal election, Gabrielle Chan doesn't mince words - even when bone tired. A celebrated journalist with the Guardian, outspoken advocate for rural Australia and encourager of individual agency. "Our system has been made up by people and it can be rewritten by people". Lets not wait for Government to bring change but get active and organised now during times of abundance.
Show Notes Connecting the grass roots regen ag movements with top down politics The need for change in our food, water, land management policies “We export a lot of sausage sandwiches - beef and wheat” Why it’s time to change the narrative around Australia's ag sector Why ‘level playing fields’ are a farce The fragility of financial deregulations, long global supply chains increasing disease, increased drought - how do we as a sovereign nation reassure ourselves of continued prosperity The potential for rural policy to create the framework that allows smaller scale and regen practices to thrive The power of the colonial squatacracy How do we bring policy reform to ag so it has relevance for smaller scale 7 regen practices to thrive The potential of utilising the “voices for” movement as a model for local food to grow Why we need to re-engage with politics The thing that only Govt does is set the ground rules for how we conduct our business. People need to be involved in politics to influence its direction The need for strategic water policy to better support us on the driest continent on earth Talking about water, food and skills while we are in times of abundance Where does the role of govt need to stop and allow room for community to pick up The ongoing debate about why we do not yet have drought policy or food policy Refine what you want to change - get organised and get active in the arena from bottom up The big secret - we are ALL MAKING IT UP Her slow, gradual, accidental path to being a communicator. Her writing approach - just keep writing, push through the creative barriers The process of sitting down and ordering your thoughts results in a unique Connecting the systemic dots through political reporting The history of farming and nature control The Connectivity of farming to EVERYTHING ELSE Ag and environment are different political portfolios - WTF We cannot have an economy without an environment The need for the economy the environment + the desires of the humans involved in farming to be interacting The need to account for ecological resources
Questions the fundamental systems Finding optimism in the work done by others Having faith in humanity Connecting people to spark change
163 Yarning w Mindy Woods From Karkalla on Sisterhood, Eldership + Native foods
15 Dec 2024
01:00:58
Sign out of 2024 with this lively mastermind who suggests we take country into our body ! How? Build routine around food, Go barefoot to boost immunity, Stop seeing food as an inconvenience Cook & eat with family often Connect to the seasons of your life & the landscape Create & share ceremony Use food as a reconciliation tool
Belonging to a matriarchal community has unlocked knowledge handed down by oral stories, dance & art where kinship is more than human to human. Knowing your spirit belongs here is a gift we can all tap but with belonging comes responsibility - one to mother earth, but also to sisterhood, eldership and to being part of the greater whole.
Living by 6 local seasons "Being part of the greater whole - we are one of the parts of many, it’s not us & them but all of us as one contributing to our country in some way we can maintain balance" Caring for her totems goanna, echidna & wollomi pine via broader care of her environment Societal lack of connection & belonging Imperfect allyship - ok to make mistakes but important to maintain connection Mob love a yarn - connect, be quiet, shut your mouth, open your listening & be there in respectful observation. Get curious about native food landscapes, Knowledge is the sacred part, the fundamental core of culture & treated with great reverence despite it not being written down, its taken seriously when its shared on It’s not transactional, it’s about relationships & allows us all to slow down to a pace that humans should actually move at. Childhood memories on country with family - eating oysters out of jam jars Being a proud cook - not a chef Having friends apply for masterchef on her behalf Debunking the myth of Australian food being meat pies & sausage rolls Asking what is Australia's cuisine & exploring culture through food Eating foods from our landscape, they belong here, are highly nutritious & are abundant Moving into eldership as wisdom holders - not an age but a readiness When you’re taking care of country you're taking care of mob & community too The privilege of taking on responsibility for cultural teachings When women are in charge it creates a great balance - women's wishes are always community based & they are thinking about country community & culture". You can’t be what you can’t see - be the one to lead the way Standing loud & proud in sisterhood - uniting. "The privilege to eat food that you’ve grown & understand the value of: local, seasonal, country gives you what you need at the right times in abundance - feeding the old people & the young people before feeding the well ones"
162 Helen Rebanks - In Honour of the Farmers Wife!
08 Dec 2024
00:42:23
What started as a throw away title while supporting her husband James Rebanks on his book tours, Helen Rebanks now proudly refers to herself as the farmers wife - a title that has very much become her identity & set in her a burning desire to write her own book about invisible women who’s stories are not told. As a mother of four & the backbone for their farming ventures in the Lakes District in the UK, Helen declares that the only people who work harder than farmers are farmers wives. I reckon she's right! She is a small in stature, large in capability kind of woman who truly loves her daily reason to get out of bed & nurture her family. hold the many threads of keeping a family going, setting the pace and rhythm. She speaks of honouring our capability to be in service with love, empathy compassion & a regular roast on the dinner table not just on Sundays. Through this lens she is bringing her own kind of approach to combatting corporate greed, multi national farmland ownership & returning us to localised food systems.
Food that’s made with love & care says “I’m nourished & looked after” - imagine being the person in the house that provides this service” This story is about speaking up for those who hold families together, hold communities together. We need small farm futures with local food systems. Knowing where our food comes from & being able to ask the questions.
We talked about: Speaking up for the women who sit behind the regenerative family farmers life. Thinking holistically about life on the land - It's WHOLE! The farmers table as a gathering place Reasons for transitioning into regenerative practices. Sharing her farming stories to help others transition their on earth practices "If I’ve ever felt minimised in the work I do its not been by me or my family" Living small & living local rather than chasing a celebrity culture is what she strives for. Our deep disconnection to our food. The power of a meal around the table Tomatoes on toast or scrambled eggs IS DINNER The role of motherhood taught her to become a voice for the process of becoming a mother. We can suffer in silence or talk to each other & learn. Sharing very vulnerable things in the hope it helps others.
161 Carolyn Parker - Living Her Daydream, Waking up to the Sunshine & Pushing Past Deep Shyness
01 Dec 2024
00:58:52
Summary As a super quiet, observing kid, Carolyn often had her head in a book or went adventuring on her own. As an adult this lead to naturally hermitty behaviour before she actively decided to show others that shy characters can do bold & hard things too - especially if they take tea wherever they go. Now, woven into a well connected community she is more or less living her daydream of tea caravans, herbal gardens, her very own herbal medicine book & a throng of good folks around her. She reveals that growing herbs was her gateway to herbalism & that we can all know their potency by incorporating them into every day life & not just turning to them when we're sick. But to do this we must get to know them. The best way to become intimate is to grow them, dry them, taste them, smell them, feel how they moves through your body. Join us on a magical herbal love-affair!
We talked about: Her seasonal daily rhythm “It was a daydream of mine not to wake up to an alarm but to wake up with the sunshine” Being a poly-jobist: business woman, gardener, herbalist "I’m an evolved that-way sort of person - I straddle between being a list maker & a meanderer". Being the kid who wasn’t ultra conversational & actively moving through the discomfort of it & learning to have conversations & a little false bravado I want to show other reserved/shy people that you can o scary things “I think we are hard wired for comfort but this doesn't allow us to reach our potential” Taking herself off to a boxing gym to learn how to be assertive & confident Drawing daydream gardens Discovering you can be a herbalist later in life Being a naturopath is so much more than a job - enabling the patient to undertake holistic change is really where the opportunity to change is. Viewing it more as a lifestyle is part of the solution Teaching her patients skills rather than selling them potions Leading patients to veggie gardens, kimchi pots, community & settled adrenals Wearing fun clothes & sporting dirty fingernails at the same time Picking outfits like her dinner, according to colour Award winning tea blends - making tea since big enough to be trusted with a kettle Starting her tea caravan Not being nostalgic The importance of being connected to people Stop moving the goal posts without appreciating what you've achieved
160 Manda Scott - Pondering how we became accidental gods of this land & seeking connection to it with humility not control
24 Nov 2024
01:12:19
Summary If we are going to lay the foundations of a world we are proud to leave as a legacy we need to be comfortable to move into elderhood - for Manda Scott this is about getting comfortable with emergence and asking the living web “what is mine to do”. We’ve created a world where separation, anxiety & powerlessness have become the underlying defaults instead of a world of security, belonging & agency. We are addicted to dopamine &exist in a world of trauma rather than initiation so how are we to rewrite these patterns? By listening to the heart-mind - its very shy & quiet but the head mind will whisper if it needs you to really listen.
We talked about: Learning to live as functioning members of the earth community Why she writes fiction not non fiction Receiving shamanic instruction How to be in connection with the web of life in all its complexity Being born into a trauma culture rather than an initiation culture Why seeing truth without self projection is hard. Her decades of shamanic teaching - still learning to discern the difference between what her ego is saying and what the energy is saying Returning to a sit spot to receive instructions to write a book “Skin Listening” - an ability to be felt with all your senses without pre conceived ideas Sit spots - what can I see, what can I feel, what does my heart say Why some languages say “I am other” and some say “I am intrinsically part of what is happening. Initiation culture is capable of holding contained encounters with death We live in a dopamine culture - addicted to turning oil into adrenaline Yearning for a serotonin mesh of connection of meaning & purpose The four stages of Adulthood Undoing our head mind dominance Offering yourself in service and waiting for your path. The chaos of our culture is that we think we can plan ahead We live in an insane world & ourselves its sane One of the key measures of adulthood is being prepared to walk against the tide
159 Alice Zaslavski - Serving your 'A 'game with salad + learning English with Big Ted
17 Nov 2024
00:51:16
Hungry? How bout a salad…trust me, after todays convo, you’re going to want to eat salad for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Not just the limp lettuce & store bought dressing kind of salad but one that tickles all your gastronomic senses. Once you've been satiated the convo settle into really chewing on the realities of this high energy lass' day to day existence: her rituals, her challenge to find the gaps to do the quiet things, learning to really be in the moment & finding her path to enoughness.
Alice Zaslavski has chatted with us on the pod before but since then her OTT love for food, food education & food appreciation has exploded into the stratosphere with another 3 cookbooks, her own radio segment on Saturday mornings & now her own cooking show on the ABC, you’ll still find her exuberance filling the pages of papers & magazines nationwide & for today you’ll her convincing you to serve salad for your every meal.
The pace of this human is dizzy-ing so its a strap in & hang tight kind of episode.
We talked about: Being a talker on paper Her latest adventures in gastronomic pleasures Listening to your body to understand what you need at the time. Food as medicine deserves to be understood by all Her ‘vegetable-forward’ food, centric Georgian heritage Sharing a common vision but not always sharing the same timing ambitions Movement has power - just start & collectively the energies come together Breaking our daily fast with vegetables Be ready & willing to adapt the recipes to suit yourself The real life day to day juggle of such a busy busy life Having a ‘wife’ in her ‘husband’ Learning to say a hard NO Prioritising her health as the most important part of her job Being lit up by all that you do so it doesn't feel like working a day of your life Time to update the vision board The soma response to birthing a new project Building an enabling network to get into flow Enabling others to be their most magic version of themselves Being an extroverted extrovert - learning how to absorb human energy via a screen Learning to speak English with Big Ted on Playschool Wishing for more time with community Making time for reading Saying yes to the opportunities that ground you.
158 Matilda Brown - When hard things fill your heart w joy & husbands make the best business partners
10 Nov 2024
00:58:48
This is a pour-a-cuppa kinda convo - Matilda Brown is a rare kind-of open book where nothing is off limits and despite not actually being her friend you get the distinct feeling that you must be.
Flipping a childhood acting career for a regnerative food business wasn’t part of her plan - actually nothing really is, this breath of fresh air claims to be “bumbling around with life, filling in time until she dies.” But her bumble is joyful & hopeful in the best way possible.
She & her husband Scott Gooding are the brains & brawn behind the Good Farm pre prepared meals range & they’ve just released a cook book with the same name - its as delightful as she is - This is her story!
Being an oversharer & wanting to know the details without any shame Going through the world giving more than taking Boobs peaking at 14 Fad diets of her teenage years without an understanding of nutrition From actor to foodie Life epiphanies via parenthood Believing that the universe has your back & the lessons you are being served are necessary Stumbling into a regenerative path Creating Cow shares until they realised there was a hole in their bucket The challenge of building a business around the true cost of a whole animal outside of the industrial food system Creating a regenerative food business nuancing as they went. Combining a regen story with convenience Sharing more than just the business news in this nosey world…navigating sharing of personal stories Avoiding a thick skin so you keep ‘feeling’ I have so much to learn as a spiritual being in a humans body, on a ride in a world that can’t be controlled or predicted. Magic sits in the bumbling, rats & mice & problem children Appreciating the things that money can’t buy The value of being relational - shunning the online solution The need to squeeze your closest folk How many ‘no’s’ do you need before you get to the YES Even when things are hard they can still be heart filling and they can make you FEEL so alive! This is living, side stepping numbness is when you feel your most alive.
157 Cynthia Jurs - Sacred Activism, Earth Treasure Vases & Combatting Atomic Bombs in your own backyard
03 Nov 2024
00:46:03
Summary Life is impermanent. Precious but not entitled to length. The past is behind us, the future is unknown & all we have is this moment. Our role is to meet the moment. Being overwhelmed with the assignment of bringing healing & protection to the earth, todays guest looked to Gaia as the source of guidance towards effortless harmony. Easier said than done but she found that our cultural inclination to constant self referencing & focussing on I, Me, Mine was the limitation. Looking beyond the veil into another dimension & awakening her relationship to the earth allowed her to thread humility into all her actions & remembering that we are part of & conspiring with gaia in every living moment gave her the space to take a breath before acting. She meditated She took the radical act of pausing to gain clarity She had the courage to step out of the old patterns She undertook pilgrimages She built global networks of healing & peace She honoured those who are maintaining the ceremonies, prayers & connections that keep us all in balance. She filled Earth Treasure vases and built a global mandala as her offering of 'sacred activism'. This is her story.
We talked about: Buddhism tradition of earth treasure vases - holy vessels with purpose Being prepared within yourself before succumbing to a summoning Bringing the earth back into balance Filling small clay pots with prayers, offerings, traditions & intentions as a symbolic measure for healing & balance Clay pots are kind of like living beings - they come alive in your hands The clay includes many sacred substances linking them to ancestral lineages Allowing ancient practices to become relevant to the world today & to the people that are participating in the offering process The capacity for different cultures, communities & lands to accept without assumption Making offerings to the earth & the unseen-beings-without-a-voice that we know we need to keep in balance Becoming a vessel but not imposing your own ideas & self importance on what you think is best for the world. Getting down on her knees and opening her heart and asking for support from the unseen energy. Our own true nature is so much a part of the nature of Gaia
“ When I learned how to get myself out of the way, form an intention, but allow that intention to unfold on its own without trying so hard to make it happen, things started to unfold in a very different way - in ways I never could have predicted"
156 Shane Simonsen - Taming the apocalypse, exploring a post industrial world & maize making people mad
27 Oct 2024
01:11:50
Summary The age of short termism now dominates - Todays guest however takes long termism the way we all take breakfast (those not on a fasting regime anyway) Apparently he was born this way.
In his recently released book Taming the Apocalypse he states that the only remaining sustainable resources after industrialisation runs its course will be biology & culture. To prepare for this time, Shane Simonsen has an exceptionally original approach to zero input, large scale farming & has committed his life's plan of living long enough to connect varieties of crops that have been separated by 60 million years of evolution by creating plant hybridisation at scale - his seed collection rivals Svalbard the Global Seed Vault.
His thesis so far: -The shortcoming of science is that it wants all organisms to behave like machines. -If we have 1000 farmers over 1000 years doing this, we would see a miracle - not a machine. - Now is the moment for sacrificial offerings of research & time for the sake of learning for future generations - Putting seeds in the dirt NOT a seed bank is the best path to build genetic diversity
Changing career direction away from complex & fragile systems
From hunter gatherer culture to industrial ag with nothing in between
Culture gaps and skills gaps
Biological systems are complicated, networked & chaotic
Why Bunya nuts were his starting place
Humans have the capacity to recognise the uniqueness & value of something in the eco system & support it to become an ongoing part of our food future.
Why biology is the unexpected miracle.
Rebuilding culture so we can accept slow, magical outcomes
You don't need many people like Shane to create real change - seed sharing, experimentation, desire to create new things
The defense chemicals of our food
Why humans are really bad at imagining things that gradually change our base line
Opting out from resource intensive lives - creeping off into the margins to exist
Spending months of hand farming to grow $20 worth of grain
Rebuilding trust & re-forming collectivism
Beginning your own hybridisation program with vegetables
Almost all the vegetable seed you buy originated in hot houses in Holland
Australia is on the end of supply lines so it’s likely we will experience a supply shock - this might be just the wake up call to realise the vulnerable state we are in.
Can we get our politicians to fly the permaculture flag?
155 Anisa Rogers & Michaela from the Degrowth Network - Downsizing for perpetuity in a new world!
21 Oct 2024
00:59:10
Summary In a world dominated by a striving for endless growth, it can be hard to see that while a drive towards money and individualism is great for the economy, it is fundamentally destructive for humanity, community & ecology. This conversation tackles us relearning our ability to grow our environment with each other & to meet our own needs rather than outsourcing to those who will make the divisions based on profit. It asks us to opt for less transactions & more relationships, it addresses the epidemic of loneliness and it settles on the idea that a little bit of debt is a good thing - relational debt that is. The time to navigate difficult & complex divisions to make us anti fragile is now but it requires us to heal our hurt hearts so we can do the work we need to do in our current system. Degrowth is the salve, held by love that is the container for our path forward as humanity.
We talked about: Poverty is political Building action into your everyday existence Seeking inspiration from socialist countries Building an obsession with nature Composting as a gateway drug Evolving from being individuals to being change making huddles Making academic theories approachable & practical Finding collective inspiration for criticising growth Creating coalitions of the unlikely by side stepping black & white Creating containers for people who are looking to connect despite the inevitable conflicts that will arise We need more spaces to hold respected disagreements Despite relationships being thorny, we are going to have to work this out. The hardest skills of all are the soft skills of really working wth humans - meeting people with what they need to unpack the complexity Being part of groups where the hard stuff can be held Building the ‘neighbourhood’ - learning the name of the person next door, even when they are different to you Being materially dependent on one another is a good thing Our mobility has meant we are avoiding our ability to learn to manage conflict. Why cleverness is disarming The role of grief & gratitude in this journey Slow is smooth & smooth is fast Instead of air conditioners - lets have an afternoon nap Returning us to our natural cycles & building our life around it Side stepping linear, capitalist striving. Connection to the earth is not lost on us - it’s in our ancestral knowledge, but we need to sit still, reskill & really want to relearn Learning to be comfortable with a lack of control
154 Paulette Whitney - For the love of flowers, food & spring loaded seeds!
13 Oct 2024
00:50:29
As a food grower, lover of the natural world, cook and wizened plant expert, todays conversation meanders between the veggie patch & the kitchen, the garden shed & the pickling shelf. A reverence for the food we eat was planted deep inside Paulette's young mind by a mother who shared her skills and passion which then carried her onto this trajectory of life where she experiences the world through her garden. As founder and owner of Provenance Growers and now author she tells the story of where our food comes from, how it was grown and what nutrients it might share with us in our interwoven way of existence with the natural world.
Loved this? Try these: Similar themes but of course wonderfully different stories. Ep 134 Jane Stevens who is a herbalist & astrologer in the US Ep 121 Nat Wilmott who shares her story of homesteading, homeschooling & living simply in the West Gippsland Hills Ep 53 Simeon Ash from Spoke and Spade market garden.
We talked about: Learning lessons outside with her Mum Seeing a process evolve from environmental impact to food Tapping back into her childhood skills to step away from the pressure to sell things Changing careers in her mid 20’s & landing in horticulture Making people feel happy & safe with what we do with our hands The many uses of flowers for culinary, health & horticulture Her addiction to seeds - especially spring loaded ones Tips for managing cross pollination for seed saving Her caffeine supported daily routine The cycle of paddock/soil management Her love of perennial edibles for ease of management & health of soil Creating plants that are hardy & weather beaten that thrive when planted Kids pulling away from their parents Being a reluctant elder Market gardening as an ideal job for a human low in confidence & introverted Her ADHD diagnosis Her husband is the doer & she is the wanderer Storytelling as a tool for knowledge sharing Following the rhythm of her brain as a pattern to writing her book The freedom of knowing you can hold more than one idea at once The beautiful cyclical nature of observing & interacting Lean model of market gardening Managing failure - easier to do when you are safe & have your basics met Avoiding waste from the outset
153 Satyajit Das - Is Modern Humanity just Neanderthals' living with smart phones?
07 Oct 2024
00:58:53
This gent who goes by the name of Das is eccentric, passionate, articulate & intelligent so strap in for this fast paced, heady conversation framed through the lens of equal rights for species other than humans to the very resources we are destroying. His voice grins, setting a positive tone & his true love of the natural world is just a tad intoxicating.
We leap from the truth that adaptability trumps strength for resilience. We quip about how the finance sector is filled with animals, we both agree that animals are more sensible than human beings - they don’t go about destroying the landscape that keeps them alive & we ponder how we came to be a culture that thinks we can click our way out of the quandary we find ourselves in. We ask if you're suffering from 'Prognostic Miopia' where you are so focussed on the near term things you don’t connect with the real long term consequences of our actions. We suspect the very culture we all swim in, means we all suffer & rather than feeling the weight of this, taking the approach of finding our own, individual ways to swim out of it. It covers a lots and its a cracker!
Show Notes Defining what it means to be human through studying animals Coming face to face with a grizzly bear in Alaska Failing our natural world as its guardian Our need for 1.7 earths "Human eyes need more pixels than there are in the universe to capture the beauty of some animals" Going to the root cause of the problems rather than bandaid-ing Human beings as mere hosts for bacteria & viruses The danger of our reliance on tech "Humans address every problem with Paleolithic emotions, medievil institutions & godlike technology - a dangerous recipe Reading your landscape Entering the phase of populism for answers Moving our problems into the future "Ultimately the worth of our species will be measured by our acceptance of our true role within the complex web that is life"
152 Charlie Showers - Regenerative farming as his laboratory for life + initiating boys into manhood
29 Sep 2024
01:14:06
Meet Jades husband - Charlie Showers. Perched at the kitchen table, this conversation is steered by questions received from listeners. For an oft reserved gent, Charlie emotionally opens the doors about why he leans into the 'uncomfortable' to realise his humanity, to the grief of facing his own mortality, taking his boys through rites of passage & why regenerative farming has been the perfect laboratory to spur his curiosity about systems, our connection to biological processes & being brave enough to do the opposite of what the mainstream insist on when fighting for a life of perpetuity for humanity. Learn what 'exudate' means & how it could be the chance for all of us to leave life instead of destruction behind us + what he want's done with his teeth when he dies.
We chatted about: Sharing a common vision but not always sharing the same timing ambitions Movement has power - just start & collectively the energies come together The value of being a curious poly-jobist Why bringing a dream to fruition is impatience filled when the vision is so clear His experience of taking his boys through rites of passage Where he wants to be buried Numbing yourself with the anaesthetic of netflix Relishing the chance to build deeper ritual in his life Embracing discomfort Being a morning person through & through His enough: a daily reflection - what's enough for him spiritually & to be who he truly is Also asking - what will I strip away but what do I need more of: cultural depth, His desire to explore an extremely simple existence - stripping back his farming 'needs' Moving away from the word 'farming' - becoming hyper experimental in the way he produces food on country Moving away from the loaded word of 'farming' Exploring the edges of the system we are all ensconced in What the landscape he stewards evokes in him & being a proud contributor to the Alpine Valleys of North East Victoria. "I'm yearning to be surrounded by people who are connected to place not just for the sake of it but because its important to living in a deep The intimate beauty of hosting on farm Wwoofers (volunteers) Composting op shop shirts when they literally fall off his back Being a banjo playing hack, brewing moonshine, anti authoritarian Collecting Teeth Storytelling: An important part of sharing culture. The complexity of being the partner of someone who has such a strong calling Cultural anaesthetics The journeys he has left in him - entwined in an exploration of self & elderhood Inner work for the benefit of then serving his community around him Modifying Black Barn Farm so it becomes a much more community space where the sum of the parts are greater than the whole. Exudate: providing things for the benefit of other things. You can go through life & the exhaust that comes out of the back of you does not have to be waste, rather a product that contributes to the building of more life.
151 Dani Wolff - Mashing together earth wisdom + mama wisdom
22 Sep 2024
00:51:25
Dani Wolff is a roll-your-sleeves-up-&-get-shit-done kinda girl who oozes earth wisdom and mama wisdom but most of all she personifies what it means to be collaborative. From her years in an intentional community to her globe trotting earth building projects and now her multi fingered prongs in collaborations that take her from veggie gardens to matriessence mentoring she shares a bagful of insights into how we can bring some of the ideological ideas to life in a way that can work for each of us wherever we live.
We talked about: Natural rhythms of each year Earth building design is not about the building, its about the people & the relationships Being drawn to communities & their dynamics - people care Her trip to Scotland for a the Gaia led course in organisational design Creating an intentional community with 25 other people using gut led decisions Holding shame when reflecting on previous experiences Teaching social permaculture The complexity of ownership & agency Living without comforts &with so many people took its toll & resulted in emotional exhaustion Communities work when there are different types of people Reflection is a really important part of the cycle Her earth building experiences Falling pregnant changed how she lives - pulling back from constant travel & constantly being in community Reframing who you are as part of matriessesnce - it was really hard to let go of her preconceived ideas of who she was and how she would live The new rhythm that motherhood brings 300sq metres is the perfect size for 6 families (23 people altogether). Using everything they grow & swapping the value added goodies with each other Being collaborative is in our DNA but that doesn’t make it easy It takes a lot to make the leap into working collaboratively & requires conversation & check ins to be sure everyone still feels valued & recompensed There’s an inner knowing that we feel better when we work with others How a greater driver can be the reason to connect The importance of sharing our parenting challenges honestly Being mothers & women who can share, assures us that we are good parent Wanting to breastfeed forever Do people carry the weight of their babies early birthing trauma What can we do differently to encourage others to build their own tools & not just rely on organisers to make things happen - create independent groups for themselves Seek mothers groups or activities & be brave enough to put yourself out there Consistently showing up is so important for community groups to build momentum Persistence is required to get things off the ground Ask "What's your why - do you want to learn skills, do you want support, where are your vulnerabilities Mind mapping & getting clear on what your wants/hopes are to fill a void Her huddle word is NOURISHMENT
150 Digby Hall - The power sits in the many so gather your crew!
15 Sep 2024
01:02:34
No-one else is coming in to solve the human induced problems & it's not about us anymore - we all have a responsibility to do something for the generations still to come Digby Hall reckons that if joined together we have wisdom, integrity & immense power to bring change but we must learn how to self manage the whiplash of constantly changing environments because its a forever 'whole' game, so this is our new normal and we have to be able to sustain our role in it. Fundamentally climate change & climate action is a human issue but we don't have much living memory about how to work deeply in community & this leads us to divided & siloed communities. Todays conversation asks "how do we 'humanly solve these challenges by the way we make our daily decisions"
We talked about What’s the decision making process for a regular family to make plans for a life that is climate resilient? Giving people tools they can use to make their own decisions rather than providing the answers Nothing is linear - planning for a climate impacted future really depends on your future of choice When planning for 7 generations it changes the first step you will take today. First Nations thinking and caring for country is becoming a critical part of the way we design for climate i.e the way we manage water Which water catchment are you in, how does your water get to the tap, how do you interact with your water, who manages your water Functioning on the edge of our system - constantly challenging how we are doing our work A “huddle” is the difference between light and dark, life & death. "There are so many more of us in this change tribe than there are in the opposing camp of climate change disbelievers but it’s critical that we find where we all are and how we transcend our ever so slightly different lenses which might not overly 100%" The importance of being in relationships with people who might be slightly different but ultimately want the same thing 2 ways to be an activist 1 is to do things actively and 2, where do you spend your money i.e superannuation funds hold immense power yet most of us are apathetic about it. He looks for the levers that trigger the flow of everything else A design rule he always puts in place - "if we did nothing else but made sure that every occupant using this building is within 8 metres of the outside world. This then solves lots of other things" We have to have both art & science to solve problems of the magnitude we are facing Why he chose Tassie; grassroots initiatives, community of life long learners The power of the yarn in local communities His food decision making tree Thinking about where you shop - Shorten the supply chain at every opportunity Reconnecting with place & the environment through the food we eat. We know how to do what must be done but we’ve been distracted by the lure of convenience The risks of self sufficiency & the vibrancy of community sufficiency "You don't have the right to do things now that will ultimately harm the greater good. We have a responsibility & we each need to do the best we can to make a difference"
MILK…despite the fact that 6 billion people on the planet drink it and we have been for 10,00 years, most of us rarely give it a moments thought. Todays conversation with Matthew Evans takes us swimming in vats of the stuff.
Milk looms large in our culture and it's complex, layered, nutritionally interesting and culturally rich. Milk doesn't just feed us - it affects the very way our DNA behaves, feeds your microbiome, speaks to brain health, beneficial to heart health. Fascinatingly, there's a two way communication between a mother and her baby which is passed through the milk.
Far from innocuous milk is in fact an extraordinarily complex social, political, ethical, environmental, scientific and fashionable elixir. So make yourself a milky coffee and settle in with Matthew while he unpacks all of this with his trademark capability to weave a story while teaching us fascinating things.
Mammals giving birth is wonderful but traumatic and fraught The intimate relationship you have with your milking cow - you’re the midwife, boss, trusted friend, child We began to milk animals about the same time as we started planting grain 10,000 years worth of accumulated knowledge and reciprocity from an animal Milking animals take the things a human can’t eat and turn it into high quality protein that we CAN use = the original alchemy Humans have thrived quite well with dairy in our life. Why milk ended up at the end of a political and public beating stick When we expect to buy one of the most complex lipid fat substances at less than bottled water - we’ve lost our way. It’s fashionable to put the boot into milk but 98% of Australians have cow dairy in their fridge The Whitlam years of 300ml milk bottles at playlunch ruined a generation of potential milk drinkers There’s not actually much to say about plant milks - they are ultra processed, nutritionally minimal and our bodies have not evolved to recognise any nutritional benefits. A fan of the tim-tam - but this is how you should think about MYLK - it’s a sometimes food that offers little value. Homogenisation and pasteurised processing and the impact it has on how we digest it - faster and earlier in the gut’ despite knowing that this is not beneficial to humans The disservice the dairy industry has done to itself with the introduction of skim milk - deconstructing the amazing product that it actually is. Losing quality Hippie nirvana of reintroducing us back to our local dairies - its incomparable with anything you can buy in the shops 1 in four farmers in the world have a dairy cow Raw Milk - forbidden in Australia, it requires licenced dairy processor permits. When you kill the bad bacteria you also kill the good bacteria. Cheesmakers will always choose unpasteurised milk Raw milk is the new moonshine Think of raw milk as a living thing Raw milk swaps in a McDonalds carpark for baristas Transformation of dairy into everything it becomes Whey makes a great antifungal and puts ALL the resources to use. He now looks at a bottle of fresh milk diff
148 Hannah Churton - The Worm Monger, creating community over compost
01 Sep 2024
00:45:10
How do you create community and influence people? Hannah Churton made friends over bucketloads of kitchen scraps and believes that compost can salve climate anxiety? It’s not simply the creation of black gold that returns the goods - it’s the strength and power in the community that has been built around it. Much like a warm cuddle - just like this convo!
Living in a zoom world - building communities from both ‘unreal worlds’ and those in your own literal backyard. Beginning a community compost hub during a pandemic “Of course the people came - it was a beautiful surprise that so many people were interested in engaging - was it a product of the time where people were seeking interaction or were they genuinely interested in composting and food waste" The courage it takes to set something like this up - nothing to lose was her reason to do it. Inviting people to participate by creating an easy-to-engage-in process that anyone could access The importance of making change as simple as possible so there was not a single barrier to participating. Weighing everything that comes through to incentivise participants - documented on a blackboard so people can see how much they have recovered from landfill. Building pride in the collective effort The street now knows each other really well Using community compost to build verge gardens that community members can use. Rewarding the community with a bucket of Evolving from composting, to verge gardens to food swaps. Creating a passive “Hub” that invites everyone but doesn’t require hand holding. So everyone can be an active participant. Foundational educational opportunity with open days and tours so they can see what actually happens I didn’t know I had a deep need to thrive with connection and community until I put systems in place genuinely access people. Reflecting on the difference between altitudes and where transition can take hold. Compost has salved climate anxiety Collectivising efforts ‘Success’ - changed immeasurably in the last few years since having children. Doing away with her old version of success. Reinventing herself: Success is broadening her impact, and that can be as simple as others observing different ways of living, a softer footprint on the planet From a career in community development on a global scale compared to her street scale success. “Look what can be achieved on such a small scale” Creating hundreds and thousands of same-same but different versions of simple, local replicable projects Shifting our value towards things that are small, localised, practical and do-able Teaching your kids to tell the story of your ways to look after the planet Building communities with a collective knowledge level Learning names over compost and thinking communally “We think about ourselves as ‘the street’ over the individual households” She’s gone full nerd on her food waste with a PHD All the things that can be made from food that’s hasn’t been eaten
“Just get your hands dirty and you'll be rewarded - starting will lead you down a beautiful path whatever it is”. “Fear really is what stops people from starting. You will fail so learn to accept that its the pathway to success. "Composting is a meditation on regeneration"